


Hidden Among the Shadows

by Iaso



Category: Naruto
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Gen, Self-Insert, go read Fade to Black instead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 01:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 262,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11818809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iaso/pseuds/Iaso
Summary: This fic is not finished and is not going to be finished, being rewritten under the title Fade to Black.





	1. Chapters 1 - 14

1-14  
CHAPTER ONE  
.-.-.  
When I died, the only thing that flashed before my eyes were the headlights of a SUV.  
The loud screeching of tires against slush echoed in my ears, the phone in my hand dropping from my limp grip. The screech was cut off by a sharp metallic crunch as the front end of the vehicle smashed into me and my body was sent careening through the air like a rag-doll. Burning, white hot pain, coursing through my entire body, blinding and all-consuming. I couldn't cry. I couldn't move.  
I'm sorry.  
The was a haze of motion, people crowding around me.  
I'm so sorry.  
Distantly, I could hear people shouting, sirens blaring, the scurry of people desperately trying to save the fleeting life of a nineteen year old college student.  
It's not fair.  
It was hard to discern much outside of the pain. My eyelids grew heavier with each haggard breath, desperately wanting to hang on but not having anything to grasp. Damn. My eyes closed one last time, one last breath floating from my lungs, and then I was gone.  
Yet, I wasn't.  
I opened my eyes again, taking in the black around me. Describing the void is impossible to do. Complete nothingness and reality in its absolute entirety all at the same time, an anomaly to us mere mortals. From the darkness a voice echoed, my ears straining to make out anything besides a soft voice, like trying to catch the whisper of wind chimes on a gentle summer breeze.  
"Awaken, champion."  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWO  
.-.-.  
For anybody who cares to know, babies have awful vision.  
The first few days were a mess of blurry shapes and movement, accompanied by noises that I couldn't trace back to their source. The whole experience was both nauseating and terrifying—I understood why babies cried as much as they did, and I didn't even try to stop myself from doing so, getting well on my way to breaking in my new set of lungs.  
Everything was overwhelming. The noises around me were too loud, the lights too bright, the blankets too rough, the temperature too cold. Nothing was good, nothing was comfortable, nothing was right. I was in an unfamiliar place in an unfamiliar body. This wasn't my mom, this wasn't my house, this wasn't my room. This wasn't me.  
Well, I didn't want it to be me, though I knew deep down that it was indeed me—or at least, my consciousness. Or my soul? That was what reincarnation was, right? Except I didn't remember this happening before. I'd only even been Annika. There was perhaps the chance that these were the types of memories your brain whipped itself clean of as soon as it got the chance. That, really, was the only solution I could think of.  
I let these thoughts that keep me occupied—having an existential crisis was preferable to reliving the memory of an SUV smashing head-first into me, or the blackness that was my reality during the time that stretched between my last heartbeat as Annika and my first heartbeat as whoever the hell I was now.  
You know, the little things.  
That form of inner turmoil was long forgotten though once I hit a week old and my vision cleared some, to the point where I could finally make out distinct shapes and images—it was only then that I took note of a very important detail about the world around me. The woman who had birthed me in this world—my mother, as odd as it was to think of her as being such—wore a hitae-ate. Specifically, the one native to the Village Hidden in the Mist.  
I had one short moment of silence, where I stopped screaming long enough to ponder who exactly I'd pissed off to deserve something like this, before I started screaming again with more vigor than before.  
There was a short, pained sigh, and the thing that was bouncing me around started to soothingly pat my back, humming a little louder. Whether to calm me or simply drown out my screams, I didn't know. Out of sheer pity for this woman I did actually try and quiet down some. I didn't have much success, being as my baby instincts had a habit of overriding my teenaged consciousness, but the volume went from ear shattering to vaguely annoying, and some of the tension in my mother's body eased.  
Time was difficult to judge.  
I assumed I was a few days old when I started to actually understand the world around me. I had no way of knowing for sure, though, as I'd see the sun streaming through the rain-streaked window panes, then blink, and there'd be the moon hanging low in the sky. It was difficult to keep track of how often that occurred.  
The only thing that served to be a larger barrier was language. I understood none of what was being said around me, as I had spent my entire life as an American, and thus didn't have more than a few key phrases of Japanese under my belt. The words went over my head in a jumbled mess of noise, but I could at least try and piece together what was happening through tone and facial expressions.  
My mother never seemed to relax. Each time somebody opened the door, she'd go tense, like a bear ready to strike down anything that could dare try and harm her little cub. The closest she ever got to settling down where the short periods of time where my father would enter the room and visit, but those were few and far between.  
Regardless, slowly but surely, I started to grow attached to them. Aside from the odd visitor, my mother's face was the one I saw all day, a warm sight that held the kind of affection only a mother could ever muster, bouncing me up and down all day, cooing at me even as I puked all over her shoulder. Whenever my father did come to visit, he gave mother and I his undivided attention, taking turns kissing us on the forehead and humming along with mother as she sang, his voice an awful rasp that sent mother into giggles. I tried not to spit at him or cry when he was there. Him, too, I found myself starting to genuinely care about.  
They had made me.  
It wasn't their fault I had some teenager's consciousness floating around in my head instead of the usual baby brain; I couldn't bring myself to fault them for not being the other set of parents I had grown to love.  
There were times I wondered, though. Sometimes when father would visit, him and mother would start to talk in hushed voices, as if they were worried somebody was listening in on them. Combining that with mother's non-existent ability to relax, I knew that there was something wrong bubbling beneath the surface.  
I didn't want to consider there was an issue, but this was a cutthroat world, and I was born into what was probably the cruelest of the villages, to shinobi parents. Even though father had never worn his headband around me, I knew from the insane level of grace in his movements and the near constant way he looked over his shoulder that he had to be a shinobi.  
I had to admit that it was comforting to know I had parents who were shinobi. It wasn't the warm and fuzzy kind of comfort, rather a cold sort of reassurance, knowing there would always be two people who were walking, talking weapons, that could defend me, while if anybody came at me with the intent to harm, the best I could do was puke on them and hope they were too grossed out to try to kill me.  
Of course, just when I started adjusting to this whole reincarnation thing, and caring for these two people, that was when I found out my suspicions had been well founded, that something wrong was lurking beneath the surface.  
Mother and I were laying on her bed.  
I rarely slept in a crib. Mother always had me in her room with her, cuddled up in the empty space between her and father. Eventually, he'd come to bed as well, but I only knew that because of the odd time where I'd wake up at the shifting of the mattress. Most of the time mother and I were already fast asleep when he'd finally join us.  
So, when the bed dipped beside me, I assumed it was just father coming to bed as usual, and let myself drift off into beautiful slumber again. Except this time it wasn't the usual.  
My eyes had blinked closed again and I was starting to float away when hands gripped me, pulling me in tight. I took the first course of action that my instincts presented me with: I started screaming. Mother began to shush me, humming, but something about the noises sounded off. I opened my eyes again, taking note of the downright terrified expression on mother's face, the panicked tones her and father were speaking in, and the fact that my father stood beside us in full shinobi attire, wicked knives gleaming from his belt.  
I stopped crying.  
It was at that point I realized how desperately I wanted to understand Japanese.  
Mother was crying, the fat water droplets streaming down her cheeks, and the corners of father's eyes were shining in the moonlight. A sense of dread pooled in my stomach and gripped my chest. Whatever was happening, it wasn't good. Not one bit.  
Their voices gained heat but remained lowered, their words made harsh by fear. The longer they spoke, the tighter mother gripped me, holding me so close to her chest that I could hear her heart pounding out its beat. I reached out a tiny hand towards her chin and she looked down at me, falling silent. Father reached up to rub his thumb across my palm and I gripped it as tightly as I could.  
He jerked to the left, as if he heard a noise, and his entire body became poised to strike. His didn't move anything except his lips as he spoke a few words, in a shaky voice, that had mother spitting out what could only be curses.  
Mother's face shifted from terror to determination. She lifted me so that I was right in front of her face and kissed me on the forehead. She murmured something as one last tear slipped from her eye, then she shoved me at father.  
He seemed to take me on instinct before his mind caught up with him and his head snapped back to look at her. She gave him a smile; a sweet, loving, warm smile that obliterated my heart once I clued in that she knew it was her last, and raised a single hand to caress his cheek. His eyes widened. He wanted to protest—who wouldn't?  
She leaned forward, kissed him, and leapt out the window. Father went to follow her but by the time he was out and on the roof, ready to do something—anything—all that I could hear were bloodcurdling screams, ones that were distinctly female. It resonated within me, shaking my bones, forcing my hair on end, and sending my lips into a pucker as I tried as hard as I could to reign in my own cry.  
There was danger around us, and I'd be damned if I'd attract any of it by being noisy.  
Father's face seemed to crack. His hands shook where they held me, oh so gently, like I was made of glass.  
He whispered a single word that even then I understood. "Ume."  
He sounded broken.  
Only a second passed where he grieved before everything in him shifted and he steeled himself, shooting off in the opposite direction of the screams, moving so fast that the world blurred around us. I felt something odd, like a cloak was being thrown over me.  
He ran and he ran and he ran.  
Days passed. I was, again, only duly aware of the cycle that the sun and moon were going through. All I could understand was that I was upset over the death of a mother I would never get the chance to know.  
Father only stopped running twice, both of which were to try and get me something to eat. None of it was suitable for a baby. He would murmur things, apologies it sounded like, as he tried to get me to eat. The bags under his eyes only grew the longer he ran. He ran through forests, bogs, across an ocean, and literally anything else that stood between him and his destination.  
While he did that, I was slowly starving.  
Babies were only meant to go a maximum ten hours without eating, and I could tell from how hard it was for me to keep conscious and quiet that I had passed that threshold. He likely had come to realize that too if the urgency in his movements as he ran was any indication.  
I felt awful. When I was asleep, my dreams were fitful, and when I was awake, the world was a mess of shapes that I didn't try to discern. I started to wonder if I was going to die again. I also started to wonder if I died and was reincarnated again, would I still have this consciousness, or would I have the mind of a baby? These thoughts didn't help much.  
It wasn't until I heard voices other than father's that I was able to fully pull myself into alertness, though it was through a hazy lens that I saw the world. I forced my eyes open and first saw the lush green of the forest. My head lolled in my father's arms and he turned his gaze down to me, jade green eyes meeting mine. I saw the concern in them loud and clear. I mustered a gurgle and raised my hand up towards him. His lips twitched into a strained smile and held my hand, giving it a gentle shake.  
Then he looked back up towards whoever was in front of him and his lips started moving again. I managed to turn my head, following his gaze. Two shinobi stood in front of him. They both wore their headbands straight across their foreheads, the distinct symbol of the Village Hidden in the Leaves emblazoned on the polished silver.  
Oh.  
There was an exchange between the two. Father was tense, taunt and shifty, eyes darting down to me every couple of seconds before moving back up. I watched as one of the shinobi reached to his waist and pulled out a walky-talky, having a short exchange before he nodded to father, moving off to the side of the gates. As he did so two more shinobi materialized beside him, both in full ANBU attire, and motioned for father to follow after them.  
They all flew across the rooftops towards a large building. The Hokage tower, if I were to take a guess. All three of them vaulted into the Hokage's office through the window rather than using the front door.  
I watched as the Yondaime leant back in his chair, a desk stacked high with files and papers sitting between him and everybody else in the room. There were three others in the office, off to the side of the room, their chairs arranged in a crescent shape, staring down my father with unbridled distaste. The Yondaime, however, kept his expression blank, arms crossed over his chest as he assessed my father and myself. When his eyes hit me, they seemed to soften.  
The Yondaime, Minato Namikaze.  
He looked… well, as old as my own father. Mid-twenties, at most, but with lines on his face that made him appear far older. He stood and moved to the other side of his desk, pointedly placing himself between my father and everybody else.  
The conversation started, my father's voice steady but gaining a shake as he went on—telling his story, and, I suppose, what was then my story too. A mother and wife lost saving her family, a father's desperate struggle to keep that sacrifice from being in vain. The thought of her, with that smile, and the scream that stretched on as father ran…  
I started wailing.  
Father paused, looking down at me again, helpless. One of the women stood and made her way towards us. Father tightened his hold on me and took an apprehensive step back, angling me away from the woman. The Yondaime raised a hand and said something to the woman in a harsh tone that sent her back into her seat in a hurry. Father started an awkward, bouncing shuffle, like he was trying and failing to replicate what mother always did when I got fussy. For his sake, I did everything in my power to override the baby instincts that sent me into a fit, to a limited level of success, the cries reduced to a tearful sniffle.  
Father kept the odd movements up as his conversation with Minato continued, until something said stilled him. One of the people off to the side spoke up and the Yondaime snapped something at them. Father's arms stiffened. His voice grew desperate, and I knew even without understanding Japanese that he was pleading.  
I hated it. I hated every minute of it.  
I died, then I was born again.  
I grew accustomed to the stupid baby body I then inhabited.  
I reconciled with the fact that I would never again see my mom and dad, the ones who had raised me for nineteen long years, through all the shit that came with it.  
I started to grow attached to the people who were then my parents, who had brought me into this world.  
After everything, no matter how hard I tried to see the silver lining, everything just had to crumble. A house of cards being blown down with a single, cold gust.  
Mother was dead. She died screaming in agony.  
I was slowly starving to death.  
Father was fighting a losing battle.  
Whatever goal he had had in mind when he came to the village, it didn't appear he was anywhere near accomplishing it. Shinobi didn't beg. They saw what they wanted and they took it. Yet there father was, all but on his knees.  
It appeared Minato seemed to be on the same line of thought, as he gave a slow nod, his expression finally morphing into something both firm and sympathetic. He said something that sent father's muscles lax. Father answered, the relief in his voice so thick it nearly sent me bawling again. Then he, much like mother had in her last moments, held me out in front of him, a tired smile on his face.  
"Kasumi," he murmured. My name. That had to be my name. I'd heard mother say it before, but I'd never given the words much thought, I'd never had a reason to. Now they were all I could think about.  
His eyes roved all over me, drinking in every detail of me, and I got the same feeling in the pit of my stomach as I had when mother smiled at him—it was the look of a man who knew his death was near, an inevitable conclusion to the events transpiring. I wanted to scream, but for the first time, not a single noise came out of me. He pulled me near, kissed my forehead, then handed me off into the waiting arms of the Yondaime.  
The two ANBU moved to either side of him, like bodyguards—except I knew rather than protect him, they were about to lead him to his death. Father paused at the doorway and gave me one last longing look.  
The Yondaime said something, the words rumbling in his chest and vibrating against my side.  
Father simply nodded, turned, and walked away.  
Still, I didn't cry, not then, and not again for many years after.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THREE  
.-.-.  
I never forgot anything.  
Not about my mother, nor about my father; my memories of my life as Annika were muddier than my memories of this life, but they were there still.  
However, life went on.  
I was taken to the village orphanage the day after my arrival. Within a week, a young couple adopted me; I became Kasumi Himura. They treated me like their own. Some days, I'd go in with them to the restaurant they owned, sitting on the counter and watching the customers come and go, doing my best to siphon as much of the Japanese language as I could from the conversations that would happen around me.  
Other days we'd go shopping for groceries. Sometimes we'd spend afternoons at the park. On the rainy days, we'd cuddle up on the couch, bundled up in blankets, and watch movies. I was their only child and I had no qualms admitting that they spoiled me rotten. Mama doted on me, watching me like a hawk anywhere I went. Papa was more relaxed most of the time, balancing mama out, persuading her into a little extra dessert here or a little more freedom around the village there.  
They worked well together. They loved each other. They loved me.  
We were a happy family.  
The first big hurdle had come, though, when it came time to sign me up for school, and upon our trip to register me at the civilian elementary school, I had requested to instead be enrolled at the Academy.  
Mama's first answer had been a shocked 'no', as if she hadn't even expected me to ask. Papa had been a little more willing to understand, to hear me out, and eventually plead my case to mama. There'd been an argument over it, but in typical fashion once she'd been converted she ploughed full steam ahead, deciding that if I was going to be a shinobi, she was going to cover all of her bases and give me the best possible crack at it. I knew papa had gotten to her when the day before registration was due, she shook me awake in my bed and paraded me through the shinobi parts of the village, getting everything the Academy recommended and then some.  
Through all of this, though, the memories of my past persisted, constantly invading my life no matter what I did.  
When I was three or so and had gained a decent grasp on the verbal aspect of the Japanese language, my memories gained a new perspective; words that were only a jumble of sounds and tone became actual words with actual meaning behind them. The information I could glean from my memories was limited, as all I could pull from was what people had said around me while I was still in my infancy. I found myself mostly with useless knowledge that lacked the context needed for it to make sense.  
This was made worse by the fact that then I struggled to pull on my memories manually. Some were easier than others. The last moments I spent with my parents were memories I could recall at the drop of a hat, whereas day-to-day moments could take minutes to unearth. After overcoming the challenge of getting to the memories, I could recall them with crystal clarity, as if they had happened only the day before, in the same way that all my memories seemed to be stored. They were there, I knew they were there, I could feel them there in the back of my mind, but they were hidden behind what seemed to be a barrier, locked away to keep my mind from constantly overwhelming itself with the sheer amount of memories I had stored, every minute of every day that I spent conscious preserved, no matter how mundane.  
It felt like searching a library where the books had placed without any rhyme or reason. If my brain thought I needed information—or, just for shits and giggles, on some occasions—it would simply supply me with it. It was impossible to know what would prompt the memories to flash up in front of me, pulling my consciousness back into the deepest recesses of my mind.  
A lady in a flower shop giving me an orchid. "For your eyes," she had said.  
Mother smiled, hand grazing my cheek, the same violet eyes I saw in the mirror everyday gazing down at me. "My baby girl," she murmured. "If only you hadn't gotten my eyes."  
A book from the bookstore, my fingers gripping its spine so hard my knuckles went white, the title "The Little Ninja Who Lost Her Kunai" written across the cover.  
"How about this one?" mother asked, cradling me in one arm while the other reached out towards the bookshelf. She pulled off a small red book. "The Little Ninja Who Lost Her Kunai—if you're anything like your father, that'll be you one day."  
Mama and papa, the people who had taken me in as their own, sitting with me in the living room, with mama stroking my hair. "You have such pretty hair," she had sighed, holding a lock of it in between her fingers.  
Father held me in his arms, a single hand raising up to touch the crown of my head. "I see auburn," he said. "She got your hair and your eyes."  
Mother laughed. "She has your nose, though."  
The memories were painful, but I still found myself grateful that they were there.  
As much as it hurt to see my mother and father anytime I stared at my reflection, a little voice in the back of my head reminded me that I could not remember them existing at all, like Naruto.  
What my memories didn't prepare me for was the appearance of my bloodlimit; it never ceased to annoy me how blindsided I'd been by that.  
Mama and papa had taken me with them to do some errands out in the village. Papa was leading me by the hand—though with how busy it was, he was still checking every couple of minutes to make sure that I was, indeed, still there. I tried my best to keep up but with my short little legs it was a bit tough.  
He pulled me to a stop in front of a store window, stooping down so that he was at eye-level with me.  
"Kasumi, sweetheart, just wait right here, okay?" papa said. "Mama and I just need to grab something from the store here."  
"I wanna come in."  
"But we're getting something that you can't see, okay?"  
"Why papa?" I whined.  
"It's a surprise for you," he said and poked me on the nose.  
"Okay papa," I said with a giggle.  
He grinned. "We'll be right out, I promise," he said.  
Him and mama disappeared into the little shop and I plopped down on the ground in front of it, watching as people went by. I could only assume it was a birthday gift they were getting me. I couldn't see much of what was in the shop, so I genuinely had no idea what they were getting in there, but if he didn't want me to know it was probably a birthday gift.  
I curled my knees inward and hummed to myself. Off to the side, just barely audible, was a little mew. I froze. My ears pricked, listening for the noise, and a few seconds later I heard it again, a little more loudly this time.  
I shot to my feet and followed the source of the noise—I was sure that mama and papa wouldn't mind if I left for a couple of minutes just to pet a cat. It was just a couple of minutes.  
I wormed my way through the crowds of people into the alley. It was after I was at the end of it, alone, in the dark, that I began to realize that mama and papa would most certainly have not approved of what I was doing. It was a bad idea, actually. I went to turn back towards the shop, my logic getting the better of me, when the boxes in front of me shifted, tumbling away to reveal a cat.  
The little furball sat inside of a box, licking its paw contently.  
Well. I was already there, I'd gone through all the trouble—I figured that I may as well get just one little pet, and then I'd go back.  
Cautiously I reached out my hand and gave the cat a pat on the head. The cat purred, movings its head into my palm and swishing its tail around. Okay. That had been my one little pet. Mission accomplished. I turned back around to go back to mama and papa, but instead found myself facing a man that sent an uneasy chill down my spine.  
He grinned down at me. "What 'cha doin' here little girl?"  
"Uhm," I squeaked, wanting to tell him off but not finding the words coming out. I cursed my childish voice and childish body—this wasn't good. I ran forward, trying to dart around him, but he caught me by the collar of my shirt and tossed me back further into the alley.  
"Oh, no you don't," he said. "I wouldn't want you to get… lost."  
I tried to scream but he clamped a hand over my mouth. That was when the panic really started to set in. More than that, I felt myself reverting from the consciousness of a near-adult to the instincts of the four year old body I was inhabiting.  
No, no, no!  
I didn't want to be there. I wanted to go home. I wanted mama and papa.  
The guy pushed me back and put his hand to his belt, smirking at me through the darkness.  
I want to go away… I want to disappear.  
I don't want to be here!  
An eerily familiar feeling washed over me, both physically and mentally. Like a bucket of cold water had been poured down my back and a blanket had been thrown over my entire body.  
Suddenly, his smirk vanished and he looked around, confused.  
"Where'd you go you little bitch?"  
My mind flashed back to father all those years ago fleeing Kiri with me in his arms.  
He couldn't see me. My body was reacting to my instinctual desire to flee, to disappear—how, I didn't know, nor did I care. I was more concerned with how to fix it before whatever it was killed me.  
The speed at which my chakra was leaving me though was downright petrifying; each second that ticked by a chunk of my chakra went with it, and I had no idea how to make it stop. I could feel it draining out of my body, leaving me weak, my arms growing heavy and my eyelids starting to want to shut.  
At the far entrance of the alley I could see another person standing there, staring at the man who was now brandishing a knife at thin air. I could make out the tell-tale flak jacket of a shinobi, likely one off duty who just happened to glance in and get curious.  
He would help me. He would keep this guy away from me.  
The man's eyebrows knit together in confusion. He looked to the man in front of me, and his eyes moved over me, but they didn't stop on me. All he saw was a guy with a knife in an empty alleyway. He took a step back, making to leave the alley, and my whole body clenched with a surge of panic.  
Please, don't go!  
I need help!  
See me! See me, please!  
This time, my body obeyed my desire, and the cloak fell away. The man in front of me made a startled noise, his hand falling to his belt and hovering over the hilt of his knife.  
From the far end of the alley the shinobi reacted with record speed, jumping forward at the guy with the knife and snapping his neck clean in half. My knees buckled, the strain of losing that much chakra at once sending my body into shock. The shinobi caught me before I hit the ground. I could see his lips moving but I couldn't seem to make out any words that he was saying. My eyes fell closed, the sweet darkness consuming me.  
.-.-.  
Waking up in the hospital was like waking up with a severe hangover. My head hurt and my chest was weighed down as if there was a brick wall sitting on my entire body.  
"Oh no, sweetie, don't get up," a voice murmured. "Just give yourself a minute."  
Groggily, I cracked my eyes open. "Mama?" My voice was rough and shaky.  
"I'm here," she said. "Papa's here too, he just left for a minute to talk to one of the doctors, but he'll be back soon."  
The hospital room was just as it had been in the show and manga. Pristine white brick walls, side tables overflowing with flowers, and plain twin beds. I'd gotten a single room. I looked over at mama, who sat on one side of my bed, and as my gaze shifted to the other side I had to do a double take, as I nearly didn't believe it when I noticed Sandaime sitting very calmly in the other chair.  
"Hello, child," he said. "It seems we have some things to discuss."  
I gaped.  
Mama smacked me in the arm and gave me a sharp look. "Kasumi, manners."  
I jolted and bowed my head as best I could from my position. "Hello, Hokage-sama. I apologize for my behavior."  
The Sandaime inclined his head and chuckled lightly. "No apology necessary."  
A short silence filled the room and I cleared my throat, looked towards mama. She gave me a reassuring smile, but there were bags under her eyes and deep worry lines etched into her expression. Nobody spoke, though. On instinct, my gaze kept wandering, landing on a table beside my bed, a particularly large bouquet of flowers catching my eyes. I reached out a hand and felt the soft petals of the yellow carnations. I'd worked in a flower shop for two years during high school, while I was Annika, and the names of the flower's and their meanings popped into my head.  
Yellow carnations for cheerfulness. Black-Eyed Susans for encouragement. Gardenias for joy. It was a get-well bouquet. I picked up the little card that sat in front of it and squinted at it, carefully sounding out the words as I was able to read them—the verbal aspect of Japanese, I had a decent grasp of, but I couldn't say the same for the written. "To Kasumi… from your classmates. Get well soon."  
Mama smiled at me. "There's been a new bouquet every few days."  
"Every few days?"  
"Well, you've been asleep for almost two weeks."  
As my consciousness fell back, latching onto why I had been out cold for that long, the five-year old in me blanched. "Two whole weeks?"  
Mama laughed. "Yes, your body needed to take a bit of a break. You did quite a number on it."  
"Oh…"  
Two weeks.  
Chakra exhaustion, I assumed. Unless I'd hit my head when I'd collapsed and sent myself into a coma. That seemed… extreme? My lips pursed. I didn't recall anybody going out for that long due to chakra exhaustion in the show. My age may have affected it, I supposed, my body's chakra systems still developing and still not capable of replenishing themselves efficiently.  
The door swung open and papa walked through with a young woman, who I assumed was my doctor, in tow. His face lit up when he saw me awake and alert.  
"There's my little ninja!" he exclaimed.  
"Papa!" I grinned at the name, throwing out my arms in expectation of the hug that I knew was coming.  
"It's good to see you awake," he said.  
I hummed happily, resting my chin on papa's shoulder.  
"Now then," the Sandaime said. "Let's get started."  
Carefully, papa untangled himself from me and sat down in the empty chair right beside my bed, resting his hand on my leg. His face sobered—he kept his expression neutral, but his hand had a shake to it where it sat on my knee, his eyes constantly shifting between me and the doctor, shoulders tense.  
The doctor looked down at her clipboard. "Well, you daughter's body is healing up nicely. After the initial depletion of her chakra, everything seemed to remain intact, despite the shock of 96% of her chakra being removed in under a minute."  
I had to try and hide the shock that ran through me at that number, reminding myself that I shouldn't know how significant that was. Mama and papa seemed to not have enough knowledge of chakra to understand exactly how dangerous that was, and simply nodded as the doctor continued on, gauging my expression and the Sandaime's.  
"The first few nights were a bit rough, but overall she's made a solid recovery. I'd say she'll be clear to leave the hospital in another week if she's up to it," the doctor said and smiled. I stared blankly at her and she laughed. "You get to go home in a week, kiddo."  
"Another week?" I cried, even as I was internally scrambling to wrap my head around the information. "What about school? Man, I'm gonna be so far behind."  
"I'm sure you'll be fine," papa said and rolled his eyes. His shoulders had eased some at the information, though.  
Sarutobi nodded and gave the woman the typical grandfatherly smile. "Thank you, Fukui. If you don't mind right now, I must speak with the patient and her parents privately," Sarutobi said.  
"Of course Hokage-sama," the woman said and bowed her head before turning and walking out the door.  
The man turned his gaze back to me. To the unobservant eye, he was a harmless old man, a kage the other villages claimed was too soft—I saw none of that. In his eyes there was a sharp alertness that all shinobi seemed to have, that ability to be outwardly relaxed but inwardly ready to spring into action in a fraction of a second. I did not believe that he was unkind, but I knew better than to assume him to be placid. This was not a man to cross.  
"I must ask, Kasumi, but do you recall what happened?" he asked.  
I fiddled with a flower I had nabbed from the bouquet to avoid having to meet his gaze, not wanting to meet his eyes. Shy was always a safe bet. "Uhm I saw a kitty… and I just wanted to say hi to the kitty so I went to find it… and then there was this scary guy behind me and I got scared… and I just wanted to leave and go find papa and I didn't want to be there anymore…"  
"I see."  
He held the silence, watching me with a critical eye, waiting for me to keep talking.  
The trick was finding a way to be truthful while still maintaining a childish visage. "I just wanted to go away and disappear… and I did," I finally mumbled.  
"Thank you. That does sheds a bit of light on what happened," he said. "But I want you to be careful and to watch what you do from now on. We do not want this to happen again."  
That makes two of us. The last thing I needed was to nearly kill myself by using a technique that would drain me of my chakra in under a minute.  
"Okay."  
He looked to mama and papa, heaving a sigh. "If you wouldn't mind, there is something I must speak to the two of you about in private."  
Mama and papa shared a look. "Are you sure it must be in private?" papa asked. "Anything we know we'd like—"  
"It is better to keep this between us," Sarutobi interrupted, his voice firm.  
There would be no disputing it.  
Mama and papa both gave me a smile as they got up and left the hospital room with the hokage, something they lacked upon their return. They were tight lipped about whatever they had discussed with the hokage. I tried, pushing what luck I could, but neither of them budged.  
I didn't find out what they had been told until after I returned from the hospital. Mama and papa were surprisingly easy to eavesdrop on, and I'd managed to overhear them late one night as they sat in the kitchen, discussing it. Truth be told the hokage hadn't given them much information, but in conjunction with what I had gotten from my memories, it shed light on some things. Not much of it was useful—it was still better than nothing, though. Whether that was because the hokage held back information or the village itself wasn't sure of the details I didn't know.  
I knew, then, that they suspected my clan was the source of certain rumours they'd heard. They hadn't been informed of what those rumours were, however, only that they believed their reputation was tied in with the bloodlimit—what they believed was a bloodlimit, anyway—that I had displayed. They didn't have a name for the clan, only that they knew it to be aligned with Kiri but had reason to suspect the clan functioned outside of the village as well. I thought all of this was odd information to be giving civilians, until I heard the rest of the conversation.  
I sat at the to of the stairs, regulating my breath, back pressed against the wall. I thought they were done talking. My mind was spinning with the information, grasping at the tendrils of my memories to try and piece the puzzle together so I could get a complete image of everything. I shifted, preparing to stand, when mama spoke again.  
"I just… how could they even ask us that?" mama asked. "Could they—could he really think that we'd give up our daughter, just like that?"  
"Some would," papa answered.  
"But not us!"  
"They couldn't know that."  
It made my heart ache to even consider not being with mama and papa, my breath whooshing out of my chest at her words. I kept myself quiet, wrapping a hand over my mouth to smother a wheezing breath.  
The thought was useless, so I forced myself to discard it—I knew they wouldn't do that to me. They wouldn't leave me too. They loved me.  
It did, though, explain why they had been given as much information as they had. Whether there was any kind of ulterior motive—scaring them into giving me up so I could be adopted out to a shinobi family was my first thought—or simply because they felt mama and papa deserved to be fully informed on me, I didn't care, because it didn't matter.  
Mama and papa loved me and weren't going to let me go that easily.  
.-.-.  
"Hurry up Kasu you're going to be late!" papa said, staring pointedly at the bowl of oatmeal that sat in front of me. "Finish your breakfast and I'll walk you own to the Academy."  
"Yes papa," I said and picked up the pace, scowling. I hated oatmeal.  
Thankfully, I wasn't late to my first day back at the Academy. I hefted my bag and walked through the door of the classroom, calmed slightly by the chatter of the other kids. One of the girls clustered around the desks near the door saw me walk in and her eyes widened, elbowing the other girls who were sitting there. In amongst the group I could spot Ino and Sakura, though Sakura seemed to just be sitting quietly while I could hear Ino almost halfway down the hall.  
All at once, the kids rushed over, chattering at me.  
I took a step back from the overwhelming sea of high-pitched voices drowning me.  
"Oh my gosh Iruka-sensei said you'd be back today but we didn't believe him!"  
"My dad said you almost died, is that true?"  
"Did you really fight off three thugs?"  
I blinked at all of them, not sure where I to even start.  
"Hey now kids, leave her alone," Iruka-sensei said from behind me, placing a calming hand on my shoulder and giving the gaggle of children a scolding look. "No need to throw all these questions at her like that. You can talk to her at lunch."  
The kids expressions shifted into varying degrees of disappointment but they listened to their sensei, shoulders slumped, discouraged. I knew they'd be back at lunch in full force but at least now I could have a few hours of peace.  
"Thanks," I murmured, giving him a small smile.  
"You're welcome," he said. "Welcome back." His voice was warm, like the verbal equivalent of a hug. He cleared his throat and raised his voice loud enough so that it carried throughout the entire room. "Everybody to their seats, it's time for class to start."  
I looked around for a place to sit, and saw Naruto sitting alone near the middle of the classroom, uncharacteristically quiet. Sympathy tugged at my heartstrings. As time wore on, I had come to the realization that overall, the plot was best left untouched, and thus had vowed to put as much space as I could between myself and the kids who would later come together to form the Rookie 9. It would be for the best. Yet, as I stared at this five year old boy, his eyes downcast, I couldn't stop myself from going and sitting next to him.  
His head snapped up at the thud of my bag landing on the desk beside him.  
"What are you doing?" he asked, confused.  
"Sitting next to you," I said simply.  
"Why?"  
"Why not?"  
"All of the kids are going to make fun of you."  
"Why?"  
"They make fun of me."  
"That's not nice of them."  
He gave me an odd look and it occurred to me that it was entirely possible that nobody had ever told him that the way people treated him was wrong. He'd never had somebody just be nice to him.  
I took his silence as permission to sit next to him and I settled down, not missing the extra large smile on Iruka's face as he looked over at our table.  
In true small child fashion I turned over in my chair a bit, gave a short nod at Naruto, and said, "Let's be friends."  
His eyes widened. "I don't think you want to be my friend."  
"What? Why not?" I asked. "Do you not want to be my friend?"  
He shook his hands fervently in front of him. "No, I do!" he exclaimed. "But I don't want other kids to make fun of you."  
"They can make fun of me all they want, I don't care," I declared. "I'm going to be your friend."  
And that settled that.  
From that day on, I ate lunch with Naruto every day.  
He was as obnoxious and loud as I had remembered him to be in the show, and it was as exhausting as I had imagined it would be, but it grew on me overtime. For awhile that was how it went, just Naruto and I. We sat together everyday, kept each other company at lunch, and then either shuffled to the parks for a few hours or parted ways.  
Mama and papa took the friendship better than I had expected. They weren't thrilled over it, but they also appeared to trust my judgement, simply nodding when I first mentioned Naruto and letting the topic end there—with me, at least. I was sure they discussed it with each other when I wasn't around, as parents did.  
I didn't make my next significant friendships for couple of years.  
I was in one of the parks reading. Naruto had gone home—or as close as he had to one in his apartment—for the day, but I wanted to enjoy as much of the sun as I could, so I stuck around for a time longer.  
All of the kids around me were playing the Academy version of ninja. I had never been welcomed to those games, not that I'd want to really play them, as I 'took them too seriously' and always one—it wasn't my fault that none of the kids there trained as hard as I did. Regardless, they were gathered in one of the fields, ten or so of them in a large circle, laughing and running around. I wasn't paying them much mind. Kids sucked, and I did my best to avoid interacting with the people of my age group when I could.  
I noted a sudden rise in noise, but didn't look up. A burst of laughter, I still didn't look up.  
Then I heard the cry of, "Go away, fatty!"  
That was when I looked up.  
Chōji stood near the group, pudgy baby hands fisted at his sides, sniffling. "But—but I've gotten better! We played together a few days ago, you saw then, right?"  
"That was when Nara was with you," the kid, a boy our age but maybe a bit older, answered. "He evened out your suck."  
The kids laughed like that was the best joke they'd ever heard. I sighed and dog-eared the page I was on.  
"I don't suck!"  
"Yeah you do!"  
"Oi," I said, walking over to them and planting my hands on my hips. "What're you doing?"  
The boy turned to look at me, shoulders stiffening. I didn't recognize him—seriously, all of these little idiots looked the same—but he apparently recognized me, if his sudden defensive posturing was any indication. I couldn't help but wonder with no small amount of amusement what I'd done to him—or, rather, what he'd done to me that'd incurred my wrath and thus made him wary of me.  
"Oh, it's you," the boy said.  
"Yeah it's me," I said. "Answer my question."  
The kids were shifting around nervously at my blunt tone. Like I said, kids sucked, especially snotty Academy students, and I had no interest in playing nice with any of them.  
"Why do you care?" he asked. "This has nothing to do with you."  
"Well it does now," I said. "If you wanna be an ass without good reason I'm gonna shove my nose in it."  
There were mixed responses to the swear word.  
The boy scowled at me, but decided that he was better off just giving me an answer. "He wants to play. We don't want him to play. So, why don't both you losers just beat it?"  
I raised my eyebrows and looked to Chōji. He was sniffling and staring at the ground, likely resigned to the fact that he was just going to get shoved away yet again. Admittedly, I felt bad for him. He was a sweet kid. Too sweet, really, but who was I to judge? I had my own work to do when it came to people skills.  
"Hey, Chōji, what's goin' on?" a voice drawled from behind me, one I'd only heard a few token times in class.  
I turned to watch Shikamaru Nara strolled across the field, arms crossed behind his head and eyes squinting against the sun.  
"Shikamaru," Chōji said. His face flushed and his eyes fell to the ground again. Embarrassed?  
Shikamaru's eyes floated over the crowd, taking stock of those involved, his lips turning down at the edges, figuring out for himself what was happening. When he saw me though he blinked. "Kasumi Himura, yeah?"  
"That's right," I said.  
"There a problem here?" Shikamaru asked.  
"I don't know," I answered, my gaze turning back to the other kids. "Is there?"  
The boy's eyes narrowed as he shot me a heated glare. He seemed to realize he wouldn't win this one, though, as he bit out, "No. You guys can play with us, I don't care."  
Chōji's face lit up, a dimpled grin taking over his features and the sniffles coming to an abrupt end. Shikamaru nodded at me and I could see the hint of approval in his eyes.  
I just scoffed. "I don't want to play with you."  
Shikamaru snorted.  
I went off back to my spot. After a few minutes, there was a rustle near me, as both boys sat down by me. They took up a conversation amongst the two of them and though they made no attempts to include me in it, they left it open should I want to—I didn't, but I appreciated it nonetheless. I took it for what it was.  
A small smile graced my lips.  
I'd made two more friends that day.  
.-.-.  
The next day, while Naruto and I were sitting outside during break, Shikamaru and Chōji wandered over, lunches in hand. Unlike most of the other kids, they never seemed to have too much of a problem with Naruto, though I figured that was more because Shikamaru was too lazy to say anything and Chōji didn't seem to be capable of uttering even a single ill-intentioned word.  
"What are you doing here?" I asked, not suspicious but ready to go on the defensive should it appear necessary.  
"They're boring to eat lunch with," Shikamaru said and jabbed a thumb in the direction of a few kids that I didn't know the names of. "So we want to come eat lunch here."  
I shrugged. "I don't care. How bout you Naruto?"  
"Sure," he said with a wild grin, practically bouncing in place.  
And with that, the two boys settled down, taking out their lunches and listened as Naruto continued to chatter on about the prank he had recently pulled on some jonin. Over time the two of them joined in the conversation, started their own, and we came together for form a friend group, as young children do. This was how it stayed for a few months at least, until the Uchiha massacre.  
It was big news around the school when it happened.  
All of the idiotic Sasuke fangirls droned on and on about it for the entire month after it happened, wishing they could hug their poor Sasuke and make him all better. None of them truly seemed to comprehend what had happened to him and just how traumatic that kind of thing could be.  
He was away from school for a little over a month. We'd been given a talking to about it before he returned to the class, and were asked to give him some space. When he did return, the look in his eyes sent a shiver up my spine; the poor kid was seven years old and he'd had to come home to the sight of his older brother, who he adored, standing over the body of his dead parents. He'd been lead to believe that his brother had killed his entire clan for no reason other than he could. Even after what had happened with mother and father, I couldn't imagine horror like that.  
I was tempted to tell him what really happened, but logically, I knew I couldn't.  
The time wasn't right. It wasn't my secret to tell.  
That didn't mean I couldn't try and make him feel less lonely.  
I watched him, every single day at lunch, sit alone, under one of the trees in the park, staring listlessly at people around the school. Slowly but surely, I sat closer to him every day, working my way there. It wasn't a noticeable difference. I'd move a foot or two closer a week. I think Shikamaru had figured it out, but he didn't say anything.  
It was a month of strategic place moving that Sasuke finally said something.  
I was the only one there for that day. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chōji had all gone to play some game that a bunch of the other kids were doing out on the field.  
"What are you doing?" he asked.  
I turned my head, looking at him. He was still maybe seven or eight metres away. "Huh?"  
"You keep sitting near me, everyday. Why are you doing that?"  
"I just like sitting here."  
"Well, don't—you're bothering me."  
I shrugged. "If I'm bothering you, why don't you just move?"  
"Because I was here first and this is my spot."  
"You can't own a spot."  
He gave me a heated glare. "If you don't leave I'll make you leave."  
Off to the side, I could see the entire entourage of girls who worshiped the ground he walked on giving me equally furious glares. I looked between the two of them, not sure whether I wanted to give this up or just wait it out and see. Sasuke decided that for me when he stood up from his spot and moved towards me with a look in his eyes that set my nerves on edge. Given what had happened he was far too unpredictable for my liking, especially if he was in an emotional state—which in this case, I had clearly pissed him off.  
With a resigned sigh I got to my feet and moved to a spot significantly further away from him. His posse were giggling amongst themselves, fawning at their little tough guy who was chasing away their 'competition'. They only served to further prove my point that children were devil spawn, especially seven year olds.  
Shikamaru was the first of the boys to get bored, as usual, and he left the other two to play with whoever was gathered there. There was no telling how long they'd last before the rest of the kids either let out their inner-assholes and made Naruto and Choji leave or the two boys got bored and came back on their own.  
Shikamaru meandered over to where I was sitting. He gave one look to where we had been before his eyes settled on all of our stuff that I'd moved over under another tree. "The sun in this spot sucks."  
"It's just fine here."  
His eyes went between me and Sasuke. "Your plan failed?"  
"Yep."  
"That sucks."  
"Yep."  
He sighed a little. "Well, I guess the sun here isn't that bad."  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER FOUR  
.-.-.  
I found my time at the Academy fascinating, though not for the reasons a normal child would.  
The actual academics were mind-numbing in their level of boredom. I had, afterall, retained a large portion of my intellect from my past life, however far it was shoved into my subconsciousness. I made an effort to curb my scores, at least in part, because the last thing I needed was to be deemed a prodigy and shoved into the field before I had actually grown physically accustomed to this body—we may not have been in the wartimes, but old habits died hard, and I saw kids in the older grades get moved forward ad nauseum. Scooting by at the level of 'average' wasn't a challenge, not academically at least.  
The thing that had really caught my attention was the propaganda blatantly weaved into all of our assignment—we heard the stories of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha who formed the village based on the shared ideals of peace and friendship, wrote essays on the Will of Fire, all the good stuff. While I found it to be a bit on the overzealous side, I understood that it wasn't quite so oppressive for the normal child mind, and that it had an important role in the process of shaping the next generation of killers.  
Konoha was one of the five 'great' villages. Most of those villages earned their place through the S-rank shinobi that they were able to produce, those who could single-handedly wipe a battlefield clean of opposition.  
Not Konoha, though.  
Konoha was something of an anomaly in that she produced precious few S-rank shinobi. Sure, there were some, such as the Sannin and all of the past Hokages, but they amounted to chump change when compared to some of the other villages out there. What set Konoha apart was that the vast majority of her hitting power lay in the A-rank and B-rank shinobi, whose population numbered so high that every other village was left in the dust.  
Where am I going with this?  
Well, I'm glad you asked.  
You see, what made Konoha, and thus her shinobi, a power to be feared, was that we actually cared about what happened to our teammates in a fight. Most villages saw that trait in Konoha shinobi as a weakness—the First Hokage had correctly identified it as the exact opposite. We fought in groups, we fought dirty, and we fought damn hard. A squad of Konoha shinobi were like a pack of wolves, fighting not just for the one, but for the whole, until the very last breath, and this mentality was beat into us from the very beginning.  
I had to respect it, how could I not? It was brilliant.  
This mentality not only led to tightly knit shinobi who were loyal to their village and their teammates above themselves, but it made the village that much more appealing to the entire continent's civilian population, as it was the source of our 'friendly' reputation. Of all the villages, Konoha had the most vibrant economy, the highest caloric intake per meal, and the best quality equipment, all because merchants weren't afraid to walk in our walls and sell to our villagers.  
Those who ran the village were also smart enough that they knew not to dull their kunai, metaphorically speaking, despite the fact that they could afford to, with how much higher our shinobi population was than most. We were a damn big village. Yet, mental health was still a topic that was widely covered over the curriculum, and there were always one or two Yamanaka on Academy grounds in case any of the students showed signs of distress. Chunin rank were expected to make regular checkups with the shinobi psychologists—basically just members of the Yamanaka clan, again—once there wasn't a jonin-sensei to keep an eye on them. Jonin could kind of do whatever they wanted, as far as I knew.  
I could recognize that the intent behind all of that wasn't wholly manipulative—the First had certainly believed it—but I'd be a naive idiot to assume it could be taken at face value. Not that it mattered. Regardless of the underlying motivations of this rhetoric, the truth was clear, that shinobi in Konoha were more mentally stable than most, and had a higher chance of managing to attain some level of happiness in their short lives. I could find some comfort in that.  
However, there was significantly more to the Academy than just the academics, at least after the first couple of years.  
'Physical education' was started in the first year. It was a combination of stretching and general physical conditioning. Running, obstacle courses, circuits, what have you. It was there to build the foundation so that when we started on different katas in our second year, it wasn't starting from scratch—well, not entirely, at least.  
I has assumed going in that there'd only be one thing that everybody learned. That hadn't been the case. There were two, both an offshoot of the same basic style, the Konoha Standard. Boys and girls each had their own style, aimed to be more effective based on the fact that boys were generally built to be more sturdy and girls generally had a speed advantage.  
The Konoha General was a style all Academy students learned because it was kind of like the ol' reliable of taijutsu. The boys emphasized hard blocks and hard hits, with frequent shifts between offensive and defensive posturing. Girls on the other hand were taught to redirect over block, make sharp hits on key points, and stay almost entirely on the defensive, only going offensive if our enemy left a distinct opening in their guard. The whole style was centered around the idea that as genin, we'd be fighting people who were bigger than us, hit harder than us, and could generally kick the shit out of us if we tried to actually fight them, but this was more prevalent in the girls style over the boys.  
I didn't have the worst ranking. I was short and pudgy, but I actually tried, more than could be said for a lot of the other students, especially the civilian ones. I knew it was serious. Most of the others were still in the stage of blissful ignorance.  
I saw some improvement when I was ten, though, and started up with weight training. Iruka was the one to send me on that path, and I didn't realize it at the time, but I owed him big time for the suggestion he made.  
"Hey, Kasumi can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked as we were leaving class.  
"Sure," I chirped and waved goodbye to the boys. Naruto gave me a sad look but departed, following behind Chōji and Shikamaru; I was going to be seeing them later on anyways, we had plans to hang out in the park later on in the evening. I wandered over to Iruka-sensei's desk and looked up at him expectantly. "What's up?"  
"It's about your training," he said. "I know that you're probably a little bit young, but have you considered getting weights for your arms and legs?"  
I blinked owlishly—admittedly, I hadn't considered it before he had brought it up. It was a bit foolish of me of me, in hindsight, to have underestimated how early I should be starting to properly ramp up my speed and endurance. "No… uh… I hadn't."  
"I think it would be helpful to you. The more strength you can get in those legs, the faster you can move during a fight."  
"Yeah, yeah," I murmured. "Do you know where I could get some?"  
He nabbed a piece of paper off his desk and scribbled down an address, handing it to me with a big smile. "There's this place here that has a good selection of training equipment, I'd be surprised if you couldn't find some that would work for you there."  
"Thank you," I said and waved goodbye. "I'll definitely be getting some soon."  
.-.-.  
"Hey Kasu!" Naruto shouted as he saw me walking in the distance. "What took you so long?"  
"I'm only like," I said and glanced down at my watch, "ten minutes late."  
"Yeah, ten minutes is a pretty long time," Naruto said and rolled his eyes, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world.  
"You know, ten minutes really isn't that long of a time," Shikamaru countered from his spot on the ground, cracking open one eye to stare at us. "You're just perpetually impatient."  
"The heck does that mean?"  
"You don't like to wait for stuff," I explained. "Ever."  
Naruto snorted. "Who likes to wait for stuff?"  
"Guilty," Shikamaru said.  
I settled down, plucking a couple of crackers off the mountain of food that sat between the three of them. Chōji's mom had packed the usual buffet of food, well aware that she was cooking to feed three growing young boys. I was glad for it; if it wasn't for these little picnics a couple of times a week, I wasn't sure how much real food Naruto would ever eat.  
"So, what did Iruka-sensei want to talk to you about?" Chōji asked. "You're not in trouble or anything, right?"  
"Nah," I said. "It was nothing bad. He just had a suggestion for my training, that's all."  
"What was it?"  
"He thought it might be a good idea for me to invest in some weights."  
Shikamaru choked on his food. "Weights? Why on earth would you want to make your training harder for yourself?" he asked with a whine. "It's hard enough already."  
I pinned him with an unimpressed look. "He said that he thinks that I should improve my speed, and he's not wrong. I'm probably going to talk to mama and papa about it, see what they think. I hope they let me get them," I said.  
"But you're already faster than me!" Naruto said.  
"So are a lot of people," Shikamaru muttered under his breath and I tried to hide my snort.  
When he wanted to be, Naruto was pretty damn fast—he was outrunning jonin on a weekly basis. Severely pissed off shinobi were the only thing to bring that speed out of him, it seemed, as during class races he'd always rank in the middle, or a a few places below that.  
"Be nice," Chōji chided. "Its okay Naruto, you're way faster than I am."  
I let that drop there.  
My desire for speed had nothing to do with Academy ranks, or anything so frivolous—if I wanted to live out on the battlefield, I'd have to be fast. I didn't have the build to be the strongest person out there, at least not organically—with a bit of chakra, perhaps, but that was too far down the road to be counting on. Once the other kids had a few more years under their belts, there were a few who would undoubtedly be able to run mental circles around me, not including Shikamaru who could already do that when he wanted to.  
I wouldn't have the best ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu. I wasn't trying to kid myself into thinking that training with weights could be any kind of stepping stone into greatness.  
No.  
I just wanted to live.  
.-.-.  
It took a bit of convincing to get mama and papa to buy the weights—well, okay, it took a bit of convincing to get mama to buy the weights. Papa hadn't taken much issue to the idea.  
Had I had any money of my own, I wouldn't have had to worry about it, but alas, the ten year old body I was stuck in got in the way of that. Instead, I managed to get mama on my side by claiming it was a suggestion made by Iruka; I showed her the note he had given me, written in what was undeniably his chicken scratch handwriting.  
And so, a week after getting the suggestion, mama marched me through the village to the store, papa in tow.  
The door dinged as we opened it. An older man looked up from the counter, smiling at us as we walked in. "Hello, what can I get for you?"  
"Our daughter is looking to get some training weights," papa replied.  
He gave me an appraising look. "Isn't she a bit young?"  
"I'm ten years old!" I said indignantly.  
The man scratched his head and shrugged, leading us over to the section of the store that had all of the weights lined up against the wall. Most of them looked like they'd be way too big for me. He fished through small pile of weights sitting on the ground in a box near the end of the wall and held them up, looking from the weights to me.  
"Try these ones out," he said.  
I slipped them on my legs and they sagged a bit—it wasn't a huge amount, but it was enough that they wouldn't be totally effective in training. "I think they're too big."  
"Or you're too small," the man hummed good naturedly. I took them off and handed them back to him. He tossed them back into the box and grabbed out a smaller set. "I think these are the smallest ones I got in the store."  
They were tiny. I couldn't imagine anybody being small enough to fit in them, but I tried to tug them on anyways; they barely went past my shins and I heard the man sigh.  
He dug back through the box, tossing the smaller ones aside. He was quiet for a couple of minutes before he emerged with a set in his hands, a triumphant grin on his face. "These ones should be perfect."  
I took them from him, skeptic but hopeful, and was relieved that they seemed to fit properly. They were a nice plain black that would fit easily under my clothes, thin enough that they were barely noticeable. A pair of matching arm weights came with them and I slid them over my wrists.  
"They gain weight with chakra. Put a little chakra—and I mean a little—into them, and the weights will store it; the more chakra, the heavier they get, so slowly add it in. Go too fast and all you'll end up doing is straining your muscles. I'd say steadily increase by a quarter pound a day for a week or two," he suggested, scratching the stubble on his chin. "To release the weight just pull the chakra back—it'll evaporate though, so keep that in mind."  
As he said, it barely took any chakra to give them a bit of weight. I put a bit more than he suggested, adding around a pound and a half. I moved around a bit, testing out the way it felt, and was satisfied that they would do.  
Mama and papa paid and we walked home together. The biggest difference that I would have to get used to was how it affected my balance. Mama and papa gave me an unsure glance when I stumbled over a rock, but I managed to catch myself before I actually fell over.  
"Are you sure about this?" papa asked. "If you want, we can always go back and return them."  
"Yes!" I said immediately. "It's fine, really, I just need to get used to them."  
"Honey, maybe papa is right—"  
"No I can do it!" I huffed in determination. "Just you watch."  
.-.-.-.  
Over the course of that week, I understood why the old man had suggested a gradual increase.  
As I had originally figured, the biggest difference lay in my balance.  
During our physical training at the Academy, the first match I fought with the weights I had been paired up with Hinata. Sparring with Hinata was something I looked forward to because she was one of the few girls in our grade that could give me a challenge, as it was a taijutsu only spar—if she was allowed to use her jyuuken, though, I had a feeling that she was capable of completely destroying me. When she was willing, she could hit hard and fast. I knew she pulled her punches in most matches, which was sweet, but also annoying, as it meant that I couldn't really gauge how well matched we were in skill.  
We faced each other and I grinned, receiving a shy smile in return.  
"Alright girls, a good clean fight," Iruka-sensei said. "On my mark."  
I slipped into the stance I had been taught. The stance was relaxed, hands held softly in front of me and my left leg shifted in front of me, toe pointing slightly inside, my right leg bent. The main idea of the style was to dodge and redirect the strength of my opponent. In a way, this was also the idea behind the Gentle Fist, part of what made fighting Hinata so interesting.  
"And, go."  
I slid back, watching her move. She seemed to be doing the same.  
At this point I knew better than to try and make the first move. I sat back patiently, warily, prepared to move at a milliseconds notice.  
"What are they waiting for?" a kid from the class asked.  
Apparently spurred by the comment, Hinata chose that time to slither forward and reach around my guard. I whirled around her arm and went to sweep her legs out from under her but she hopped out of my range—too slow. I grit my teeth, wanting to expel the chakra from my weights but knew that doing so would defeat the purpose of wearing them in the first place.  
The only time I could take the weight out was in a real fight, and this most certainly did not fit that criteria.  
Her hands darted out and I swayed to dodge, accidentally over doing it and stumbling. I barely regained my composure in time to swerve away from her as she went in for another strike. I could hear Naruto cheering the both of us on from the sidelines.  
We both sat back again, Hinata watching me carefully. Something in my gut told me that she noticed the little slip up. Her eyes went to my wrists, where my weights had managed to wriggle out from beneath my shirt and I cursed myself, unable to hide them from her now.  
I needed to end this quickly. This time I made the first move, pumping what little chakra I could into my legs to enhance my speed. Just because we weren't allowed to use any jutsu didn't mean we weren't allowed to take advantage of our chakra—it was there for a reason.  
She got out of the way for the first shot but I managed to catch her on my second go, landing a somewhat solid hit on the joint in her elbow. I assumed the arm was out of commission as it dangled uselessly at her side—not injured, as I couldn't control my chakra well enough to make my blows that strong, but it hurt enough she probably wasn't going to try and use it.  
When she came again she overreached, if only by a centimeter, and I snagged her wrist with the aim of flipping her onto her back. I was half a second into the action when I realized that the she had left herself open intentionally, her free hand—that I had stupidly discounted—jabbing into my side. I tried back up, but was too late, as she pressed her advantage, landing a few hits on me in quick succession. Since backing off wasn't working, I went to sidestep her attacks and tipped over a bit too far, unable to catch myself before her palm impacted with my ribs.  
Christ that hurt. I winced, feeling the air being forced from my body.  
I hit the ground, twisting so that my butt took the majority of the fall.  
"O-oh, I'm so-sorry!" Hinata cried. Her face flushed a brilliant red, hands going over her mouth as she shuffled over to help me up.  
"It's alright," I said. "The point of sparring is to hit each other."  
She gave a nervous giggle. "I kno-ow, but I st-still fe-feel bad. I k-know how mu-much that can hurt-t." Her eye went down to the weight on my wrist. On a passing glance, it could almost pass as a bracelet or a sweatband, but any shinobi would likely pick it out for what it was. "I-I'm ju-ust glad I d-didn't hu-hurt you. I w-was a little wo-worried."  
I blinked—I hadn't expected that. "Worried?"  
"Ye-yeah," she mumbled. "I thought may-maybe I'd hurt you or som-something, or th-that you were sic-ck. Sorry-y if th-that's silly."  
"No, not at all!" I blurted, waving my hands. "I just wasn't expecting that."  
She held out a hand and helped me get up just in time to see the start of the next match, two kids I had never really talked to before, and had no interest in watching. I walked over to lean against the tree beside Naruto, who was observing the match with a surprising amount of attention, his legs were still bouncing in front of him. I lay back and let him be, turning to Shikamaru and Chōji instead.  
Shikamaru was as engrossed in the match as Naruto, but Chōji turned his attention over to me and smiled. "That was a good match," he said.  
"Thanks," I said with a grin. "It feels weird fighting with weights."  
"I bet!"  
He didn't seem to be paying any attention to the match, looking around the training grounds and watching the birds as they flew by, much more intrigued by his surroundings.  
"You don't want to watch the match?" I asked.  
"It's kinda boring," he said sheepishly. "I've seen both of them fight enough anyways, I'd rather watch the things that I haven't seen before."  
I laughed, following his gaze to the little squirrel scampering across the grass, barely fazed by the kids fighting only a few feet away. The spar didn't last long and I zoned out for the rest of the class, comfortable against the tree.  
My eye flitted over to Sasuke and I frowned at the complete lack of emotion on his face. It was better than anger, but it was still unsettling to see his eyes void of anything. Times like these made me wonder whether or not I made the right choice in not attempting to stop the Uchiha Massacre and withholding the truth about what happened from Sasuke.  
Logically, I had done the right thing, if only because it simply couldn't have been stopped.  
The Uchihas were planning a coup. At best, they would have succeeded, and instituted an Uchiha as the Hokage, going over the heads of the various councils among the village. At worst, the entire village would have become embroiled in a bloody civil war, one that likely would have been a severe blow to the overall status of the village. I still wondered what if, but the rational part of my brain urged me to remember that, at the time of the massacre, I'd been stuck in the body of a seven year old civilian girl. Even then, if somebody had believed me, I'd have to explain how I knew it was going to happen, and there was no way to explain that without throwing up countless red flags.  
For some reason, the idea of proclaiming my status as having been reborn into this world from another, where this world had been nothing but a work of fiction, didn't stick out as a intelligent idea. Doing so would just get me shoved into T&I faster than I could blink.  
Not to mention the deep set in worry of accidentally messing up the timeline and dooming the entire world—I wanted to find that fear to be overly dramatic, but I m gut told me otherwise. Messing in the timeline was playing God, playing with fire in a situation where I could end up not only burning myself, but the entire world, all because of one good intentioned change. In trying to save one life, I could doom thousands, and not even mean to. The butterfly effect, and all that—a butterfly flaps its wings and a few weeks later, a hurricane ravages a town.  
I wasn't crazy to find that terrifying, right?  
Shikamaru nudged me with his foot and brought me back down to reality. I blinked, watching the rest of the kids meander across the field, headed in the direction of the classroom. I jumped, startled.  
He quirked an eyebrow. "We're going in now," he said. He turned and started to walk away but paused a few feet away, throwing me a puzzled look over his shoulder. "Come on, we gotta get in before Iruka-sensei starts taking marks off."  
Naruto and Chōji were standing a little ways away. I could hear the exchange from my spot on the ground.  
"What's taking her so long?"  
"I'm sure they'll be done soon."  
"But I wanna go inside!"  
"You can wait another couple of minutes."  
"What if they take longer than that?"  
"Then we'll wait that long."  
"Why?"  
"It's the polite thing to do."  
I gave a long sigh as I pulled myself up from the ground and brushed off the dirt and grass from my clothes. I jogged over to the young Nara boy and bumped my shoulder against his, earning a shove back as he turned to me, smirking.  
Oh yes, my boys.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER FIVE  
.-.-.  
I sighed, watching the little blond beside me who looked like he was seriously about to start crying. Two years had passed and flown by, bringing me all the way to graduation day, finally when things would start getting interesting.  
"Come on Naruto, it'll all work out," I murmured, nudging him with my shoulder - he hadn't even touched his ramen and that had me worried. I couldn't blame him but I'd never seen him ignore ramen, especially not from Ichiraku's.  
"How do you know Kasu?" he asked dejectedly. "You actually passed."  
Naruto was the only person in the class who failed the graduation exam; I couldn't remember if that was also how it happened in the show but that little fact hadn't helped much in consoling him. I wished I could have just told him what was going to happen, but of course I couldn't, so I settled for taking him to his favourite place for dinner.  
"Call it female intuition," I said and gave him another nudge. "Come on, eat it before it gets cold."  
He grumbled but took a few bites, his frown softening despite his best efforts. We chatted for a bit and I did my best to keep his mind off the Academy for a while, going between topics like who we thought the new Jonin-senseis would be and the little crush Naruto had on Sakura. This kid was stubborn and refused to listen to the sage advice I gave him.  
"She's an idiot and she's too blind to see past her precious Sasuke-kun."  
"But she's pretty!" he cried. "And her hair is like… pink and awesome!"  
"Is that it, though?"  
"What?"  
"You just like her because she's pretty?"  
He paused for a second then nodded vigorously. "Yup."  
I groaned and leaned back in my chair. "That's not a good enough reason!"  
"Why not?"  
"It just isn't!"  
"Yeah well… that's not a good enough reason for my reason to not be good enough!"  
"That didn't even make sense!" I narrowed my eyes at him. "But if that's what you think…" I trailed off, raising my fingers and wiggling them menacingly. His eyes grew wide and he scrambled off his chair, hands held up in front of him.  
"No, Kaka, no," he said, backing away. "Come on!"  
"If you insist on thinking that way," I sung.  
"Please I just ate!"  
I ignored him, advancing towards him. "If you won't listen I'll just have to make you!"  
Ayame watched the two of us chase each other from behind the counter, smiling softly as she wiped one of the dishes dry. She was one of my favourite people that I had met. Her and her father were some of the only people that truly treated Naruto like a person, not like he was the demon sealed up in his belly.  
I shuffled around Naruto, darting behind him and snagging his head in a headlock. I ground my hand against his fluffy little head. He whined and tried to work out of my grip.  
"Still feeling rebellious?"  
"No I give, I give!"  
I released the boy and he collapsed to the ground. "Smart boy."  
Stepping over the boy, I hopped back up on my chair and happily slurped the noodles. Naruto lay on the ground for a couple of more minutes before I heard him say something.  
I looked over my shoulder, a small noodle dangling out of my mouth. "What was that?"  
He cleared his throat. "I said thanks," he murmured, his cheeks scarlet. "For you know… cheering me up and everything."  
"That's what best friends are for, right?"  
He laughed, the happiest I'd seen him all night. "Yeah."  
"Now come finish your noodles, they're already cold," I said and he grinned, flashing me a thumbs up.  
"Right yeah! I gotta go soon too, Mizuki wants to see me later on!"  
I nodded, smothering any reaction I felt rising up at the name. "I see. What does he want?"  
That was right, he still had to go see Mizuki and go through that big adventure so that he could graduate; team selections were tomorrow, and Naruto had to be graduated by then.  
"I'm not sure what we're going to be doing," Naruto said and scratched his head. "He just said he wanted to meet with me."  
"Well, be careful," I said and shrugged. "You never know what can happen."  
"Yeah, whatever," he said and jumped off the stool and sauntered off, having no idea what he was heading into. I pulled out my pocket and set some money on the counter, paying for both of our meals and leaving a good tip for Ayame.  
The idiot didn't even finish his ramen.  
I sighed, kicking the ground with my toes as I walked home, the sunlight and light powdery blue beginning to fade away from the sky, replaced with the rich purples and oranges of dusk. It really was an incredibly beautiful scene. Slowly, the fact that I had actually graduated began to set it - was I even ready for what was to come?  
These last twelve years flew by in a blur and it was hard to understand exactly how much I had learnt. The Academy did its job well in getting us adjusted to our futures as killers for hire whilst hiding lessons in otherwise fun activities. To learn our survival skills and how to properly set up camp in a forest without leaving any trace, we'd gone out on overnight trips in the training grounds, hunting for our meals and building makeshift shelters.  
In terms of fighting each of us had, overtime, put our own spin on the taijutsu taught to us, integrating clan techniques or just realizing our own personal preferences. Hell, even the after school kunoichi classes ended up being incredibly helpful not only in making it somewhat easier for me to make friends, but I could see a lot of things that I could be using in the future being taken from these lessons. There wasn't much that I could look back on and call useless.  
Even the times when we thought we were just playing dressup with the teachers and putting on makeup, we were learning how to blend in with a high-class crowd, learning how to properly apply makeup and wear a formal kimono, how to act in the presence of nobility. All of it was stuff that could be used in an undercover situation.  
I knew I'd improved tremendously.  
My ninjutsu was still rough at best and I doubted I'd ever be a genjutsu or fuinjutsu specialist, but I could hold my own in most taijutsu encounters, due to the fact that I was too fast for people to catch me. Paired with my kekkei genkai, though it was without a doubt still a work in progress, I could win simply because I followed the whole 'you can't hit what you can't see' strategy. My opponent couldn't hit me before I went in for a vital hit - I had no qualms about fighting dirty, something that Iruka-sensei had pointed out with a mixture of pride and distaste.  
The kekkei genkai, I had learnt, used a lot less chakra when I consciously activated it. It still sucked up enough that using it in combat would require me to only use taijutsu while it's activated, and I could only have it active for a maximum of a minute before I started getting to a dangerously low amount of chakra, but I had started learning to get around that.  
Through practice, I could activate and deactivate the technique in a split second. It was sort of like flicking a switch between visible and invisible. By doing this, I could flash in and out of visibility, effectively evading and confusing my opponent with one move. The main problem though was if I touched them, they disappeared too, if only for a split second, and I was then visible to them. I've had yet to figure out any kind of loophole to get around this problem. Even wearing gloves didn't seem to be enough of a barrier.  
Besides that, I still could only use it so many times before I started getting too tired to effectively fight, but overtime that would likely fade, especially when I kept in mind the length of time that father could maintain the technique. Right now I was still too young to do any major enlarging of my chakra reserves, but they would grow a bit.  
Either way, I had come pretty far, but there was still a lot of work to do.  
So much work and so little time.  
.-.-.  
The next day when team selections rolled around, Naruto proudly marched through the door, a shiny new hitae-ate clutched in his hand.  
"What the hell?" Shikamaru muttered, looking in confusion from the forehead protector to the yellow bundle of energy bouncing around with it. "How'd he manage that?"  
"Beats me," I said. "I remember he had to go meet with Mizuki after dinner last night but he didn't know what they were doing."  
"Yeah, but Mizuki can't graduate him," Shikamaru said. "I don't think at least."  
"He can't."  
"Do you think he talked Iruka-sensei into letting him graduate?"  
"Why don't you just ask?" Chōji asked and rolled his eyes. "Hey Naruto!"  
Naruto looked up and bounded over to us, grinning from ear to ear. "Guys guess what? I graduated!"  
"Yeah, we can see that," I laughed. "How'd you do it?"  
The boy launched into an epic tale that I mostly tuned out due to already knowing essentially what occurred. Nothing seemed to have changed. He had gone to talk to Mizuki, who had a special task for him that if he completed, he would graduate. He had Naruto steal the scroll and Naruto had learned the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, what would now become his signature jutsu. Obviously he left out the part where he learned about the fact that he was a jinchuriki.  
I could see it in his eyes that it was bugging him, but at the same time, there was relief there, that now he finally know what had caused everybody to treat him like a disease. The whole situation was a double-edged sword.  
Iruka-sensei walked in just as Naruto seemed to be finishing off his epic tale, paper in hand with the list of all the teams. I eyed it nervously. Shikamaru noted the expression with a small smile, snaking an arm around my shoulder and giving a small squeeze - he knew better than to make fun of me right now, this was a fair thing to be nervous about. Genin teams lasted for years. This decided who would teach you the ways of the shinobi, would nurture your talents, who you would have to spend days on end with for the next multitude with. This was important. Shikamaru was nervous too, even if he was trying to hide it; everybody was practically vibrating with nerves.  
"Alright kiddies," Iruka-sensei said. "Get in your seats."  
Chōji and Shikamaru sat down at the table next to us. Naruto's eye caught Sakura and I saw him move to sit near her but I caught him by the collar and yanked him down into the chair next to me, actively avoiding that little catastrophe. He looked at me pleadingly, though he didn't bother trying to argue when I gave him the stink eye.  
The boys chuckled a little to the left and I ignored the groans from Naruto when Sakura very happily plopped down beside her beloved Sasuke, gaining the envy of every girl in the class. I rolled my eyes - the treated him like a God. He seemed to be on the same wavelength as me. He turned to look at her with mild disgust, sort of like she was a little piece of bubble gum stuck on his sandals that refused to scrape off.  
"Settle down, time to announce teams!" He looked unnerved when the class actually listened to him and quieted down. "Let's get down to it… okay, so Team 1…"  
I stopped listening fairly quickly; I didn't really care about who was on what team. Any of the important teams I already knew and it was pretty obvious that the teams weren't going to be changed at all from what I knew.  
"Team 7 consists of Naruto Uzumaki, Kasumi Himura, and Sasuke Uchiha… Team 8 consists…"  
Naruto cheered, more excited than I'd ever seen him. Sasuke had gone deathly pale and Sakura was sobbing, having missed out on being teamed with Sasuke. A lot of girls were giving me death glares. I had an odd mixture swirling around in my head.  
On one hand, I was really happy. I was going to have Kakashi as my sensei, and I was on the same team as Naruto and Sasuke. But on the other hand, I was on the same team as Naruto and Sasuke. What the hell was this going to do to the timeline?  
She may not have always been the best teammate, but Sakura had certain skills that I just didn't have - namely medical ninjutsu. We played two totally different roles in a team. Primarily, I was best at strategy and melding myself into the team, but Sakura played the role of medic and saved lives through it. Without being on Team 7, would she still end up learning from Tsunade?  
All that aside, I had just landed on the most dangerous team I possibly could have found myself on. Now I had to worry about whether or not I was up to it - and I hoped I was, cause if I wasn't, this second life would be over before my first one was.  
"Hey, what's wrong?" Naruto asked curiously. "We're on the same team, isn't that awesome?"  
"Of course, it's great!" I said and forced as much excitement as I could without sounding entirely fake because Naruto would be able to tell the difference. He had known me long enough to differentiate between real and faked emotions from me. Besides that, he was better at reading people that the show gave him credit for - he knew when he was being lied to. "It's gonna be great!"  
He eyed me uncertainly but smiled and nodded, obviously deciding that whatever was going on in my head was better left alone. "I'm gonna go annoy Sasuke," he decided, a mischievous glint in his eyes that I knew all too well.  
"Don't do anything stupid," I warned as he bounded off to do who knows what. I turned to Shikamaru and Chōji, trying to take my mind off those thoughts. "So, you guys are on the same team. That's pretty cool, yeah?"  
That wasn't a huge surprise. The Akimichi, Yamanaka, and Nara clans were known to work together quite frequently. They had skills that would compliment each other well.  
Chōji grinned. "Yeah! I was hoping I'd have friends on my team," he said. "I'm just lucky I got two."  
I had mixed feelings about Ino, but I knew that both of the boys liked her, so I did my best to try and get over any negative feelings I had towards her. "You guys got a good team."  
"Yours isn't half bad," Shikamaru commented, watching Naruto and Sasuke fight it out on the other side of the classroom. "If you can work together that is."  
I groaned. "That'll never happen."  
"Where's your optimism?" Shikamaru smirked.  
"Don't you start with me," I snapped, kicking him under the table when he laughed.  
"Kami woman!" he yelped. "That hurts!"  
"It was supposed to."  
Raised voices reached my ears and I pinched the bridge of my nose, well aware of what - who - the source of the commotion was.  
"Maybe you should go break that up before it gets too bad," Chōji said.  
Disdainfully I looked over at the brawling boys and knew that he was right. It didn't look too serious, but Sasuke was looking more and more fed up as the seconds went by and there was the threat of a fangirl attack on Naruto if he did anything to seriously injure the raven-haired idiot.  
"I swear, those two," I growled and shoved my chair back, hard enough that it tumbled to the ground, falling down with a loud clatter.  
"Oh this is gonna be good," Shikamaru said and leant back in his chair, feet propped in front of him, a handful of chips in his hand.  
Kids moved out of my way as I stormed over to the fight. Truth be told, I wasn't all that mad, but I wanted to make it crystal clear that I would not be tolerating any fighting between the two of them, not now and not ever. That wouldn't stop them completely, obviously. The hope though was that I'd at least have a bit of an easier time in getting them to work together.  
I was a normally quiet, calm person. I was nice. I didn't yell. I didn't get mad very easily.  
But if I did get mad… that was never a pretty sight.  
"Oi, idiots," I barked as I approached. Naruto looked up in fear, having been on the receiving end of my rage more than once before - he knew that tone. "What are you doing?"  
Naruto scrambled away from the other boy. "Nothing!"  
Sasuke on the other hand didn't seem the slightest bit fazed. "Why do you care?"  
My eye literally twitched. The nerve! "The hell do you mean?"  
"This doesn't involve you."  
"You're my teammates, of course it involves me."  
"No it doesn't, so why don't you just - "  
"Listen here dumbass," I interrupted, my voice sharp. "You two not getting along will affect the entire team dynamic which happens to also then involve me. Don't you dare try and pull that with me. I don't care if you like me but I do care if you're being stupid because it can quite literally get us killed, so get over whatever stupid little rivalry you have going on and smarten up."  
There were few things in this world that really ticked me off.  
I had a zero tolerance for rudeness, ignorance, and disrespect.  
I had expected him to get mad, but he surprised me, looking more shocked than anything. I guess nobody had ever talked to him like that before. Naruto looked a little surprised too actually. All the little fangirls surrounding us were positively outraged, but most of them shut up with a glare.  
It was an overreaction, but it had to be said sooner rather than later.  
Maybe I'm just not remembering the show right, it's hard to say, but I don't remember Naruto and Sasuke fighting in the show like I've seen them fighting now. In the show at least, a lot of it was just childish rivalry - that wasn't the case here. Sasuke's words and actions towards Naruto held true malice, an intensity that I didn't like. He was the one I worried about most in this case. Naruto was harmless right now, but Sasuke was so full of pent up anger that I worried one of these times, things would escalate way past just stupid bickering.  
Obviously that would happen eventually, it had to for things to advance properly. I just wanted to keep it from happening earlier than what the timeline called for. It was easier to try and prevent it from happening than take that risk and wind up not being able to stop it.  
Sasuke stared at me in a stunned silence for a few seconds. "How dare you disrespect me - "  
"Me disrespect you?" I scoffed. "Take some time to think about what you were going to say to me before I interrupted you, then you'll understand how backwards that is."  
I didn't give him the chance to come up with any kind of retort before I walked away, Naruto following behind me.  
.-.-.  
It was a beautiful day. The town was bustling with life, kids running around playing, shop vendors calling out to passersby, their voices barely audible over the chatter of the crowd.  
"Hey little girl!" one called. "You want a treat, eh?"  
I gave a polite smile and shook my head as a no. Shikamaru was oddly quiet, wrapped up in his own thoughts. I left him to whatever he was thinking, not wanting to disrupt the deep thought process. A little bit of quiet would do me good, considering I had enough on my mind as it already was.  
I still was stuck on wondering how the absence of Sakura was going to affect the timeline.  
She had ended up on a random Genin team, all three of them from civilian families. It was like they formed all the other teams and had a few leftovers so they just tossed the three of them together without really caring. The odds of them even passing the test their Jonin-sensei gave them were low at best.  
Through practice, I had managed decent chakra control, good enough that I could do the most basic of basic medical ninjutsu. There was potential there for me to at least be functional as a medic-nin. In my other life, I'd studied biology and herbology in high school for a couple of years each, so there was that minimal knowledge to look back on, but it would take a lot of work.  
It was something that I did need to consider.  
"So," Shikamaru said suddenly. "What was with that little show in class?"  
We were walking home together. My house was on the way to his, so we normally home together after class.  
"Whaddya mean?"  
"Your attitude with Sasuke?"  
The corner of my mouth flicked up. I shouldn't be surprised that he saw through it. Curious about how much he had managed to figure out I played innocent. "Huh?"  
"Oh come on," he snorted. "You don't get mad like that over stupid little reasons.  
"I don't?"  
He made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat. "Don't be annoying."  
"Me? Annoying? I would never!"  
He swatted at my arm and I twirled out of the way to avoid it, sticking my tongue out at him. "Come on answer my question, Kaka."  
"If you had listened when I was talking to Sasuke, you would already know the answer to the question."  
"I was listening, that's why I'm even bothering to ask. They were just having a useless little argument that probably would have resolved itself if you hadn't said anything and you know that, you've watched them argue for years."  
"True. I guess it's different now that they're on a team. In the future, those arguments can have consequences," I said. "If I can keep them from arguing off the field, then I can prevent one from breaking out in the field."  
He mulled over the words. "But still…"  
"No buts," I said. "That's it."  
"Okay," he said slowly. "So say you manage to keep them from arguing with each other, what about them arguing with you?"  
"What?"  
"Naruto would probably never argue with you, but Sasuke, he's a wild card," Shikamaru said.  
"That's what I'm thinking." That's what I already know.  
"What happens if by stopping those two from fighting, you make an enemy of Sasuke?"  
Huh. I hadn't actually thought of that.  
That would pose a problem.  
"That's a good question," I said. "I guess I have to just hope I didn't overstep my bounds, though I think I might have… he really didn't seem too happy with me."  
"Well you were a bit of a bitch."  
"I was hoping that if I stood up to him he'd respect me."  
"Really," he drawled, looking at me like I should know better than that. I scowled at him and he shrugged shamelessly. "It doesn't really matter either way 'cause it's already done."  
"Whatever," I said.  
In hindsight I probably had been a bit too brash, but I'd have to just wait and see. I'd always been nice to him and always done my best to understand him, and that had barely gotten me anywhere.  
.-.-.  
"Hey kiddo," papa said later on that night, a bit after dinner. I had been up in my room flipping through one of the medical-ninjutsu books that I had gotten from the library, skimming through the theory half-heartedly. "Come on down here for a second."  
"Sure papa," I said hesitantly, putting the book down on my bed.  
Oh God… what did I do? They almost never called me downstairs.  
My mind raced through all of the many things I could have done wrong as I trotted down the stairs, purposefully going slow, trying to delay whatever was about to occur. I froze when I hit the foot of the stairs.  
Mama and papa smiled up at me proudly, standing behind the table where a brand new set of gear had been laid out. There was a brand new set of kunai, shuriken, and an abundance of various tags in a small pile off to the side as well as blank paper for me to start making my own tags - I had mentioned that I wanted to start working on that, but I hadn't realized they were listening. Beside that was a new outfit. I bolted forward and ran my hand up against the fabric in awe.  
The top was a simple light green long sleeved top that could be converted into a tank top, thin and durable. A pair of three-quarter length black pants were underneath it, also convertible into shorts. A set of kunai holsters were neatly folded on top of the pants, the white one for my arm and the black one for my thigh.  
"All of this… is for me?"  
"Yes sweetheart," mama chuckled. "It's our graduation present to you."  
I was in shock. I knew how high quality all of this was - they must have spent a small fortune. Tears pricked at my eyes and papa walked over, pulling me into a side hug, smiling. "Consider it our way of showing you how proud we are of you for doing so well," he hummed, pressing a kiss to my temple.  
"Thank you, so much," I said and crushed him in a hug.  
He gasped a little. "Crushing me… just a little bit, love."  
"Sorry," I said sheepishly, lightening my grip.  
"It's alright kiddo."  
I skipped over and gave mama a hug, careful not to squish her. She patted my back.  
"Really thank you guys," I said. "This means a lot to me."  
"We know," mama said with a little wink. "That's why we did it."  
I giggled and carefully packed up all of it to transport it into my room.  
Things like this made me realize just how lucky I had been, getting adopted by mama and papa. They treated me like I was their own kid. They understood that being called mama and papa wasn't a right, it was a privilege, and they were more deserving of it than I think they knew.  
I'd always love mother and father for what they did for me, for saving me from a life that wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as the one I had now, and I loved mama and papa for making this life as good as it was. I had room in my heart for all of them, a realization that warmed me from the inside out.  
After all of it was put away, I grabbed my book and wandered back downstairs, curling up beside papa on the couch. "Thank you, again," I murmured.  
"You're welcome Kasu," papa said.  
"I love you guys."  
"We love you too."  
.-.-.  
The next day I dressed in my brand new outfit, tying my hitae-ate as a headband and doing a little spin for mama and papa on my way out the door. I hadn't rushed to get there, already knowing that Kakashi-sensei was going to be late. I jogged to the Academy at a fairly leisurely pace, about an hour and a half after the time we had been told to get there for. Kakashi-sensei probably wouldn't be here for another half an hour at least, but I had something to do.  
I waved at people as I passed through the halls, giving an unabashed grin and shoulder shrug in response to the disapproving look that Iruka-sensei shot me as I trotted past.  
The door was slightly ajar, and I could guess why. I formed a single hand seal and blew a gust of wind at the door, throwing it open, revealing an excited looking Naruto and a very annoyed Sasuke. A chalkboard eraser plopped down onto the ground with a sad little puff of dust.  
"Kaka," Naruto whined. "Why'd you do that?"  
"Because I don't want to get dust on my head."  
"Told you nobody was going to fall for it," Sasuke muttered, not bothering to open his eyes.  
A sour taste entered my mouth as I glanced at the Uchiha boy, already knowing what I needed to do. I couldn't change what I said but I could admit when I was wrong even if my pride wasn't exactly happy about it.  
I ignored Naruto's antics as he went about resetting the trap. Sasuke didn't look up as I settled down in the chair next to him. "You're late."  
"Yep," I said. There was an awkward pause before I finally spoke up again. "I'm sorry."  
That seemed to take him off guard. His eyes shot open and his hands unclasped. "Huh?"  
"For what I said yesterday. I was rude and I overreacted, and I'm sorry."  
He looked like he was struggling with something, his mouth opening and closing. "I'm sorry too," he managed, his mouth twisted in distaste, like he didn't want to say it. He struggled even more with the next words. "You were right, I wasn't being respectful and I shouldn't have fought with Naruto."  
It was my turn to be taken aback. My jaw dropped and he glared at me, daring me to say something. "Uh… thanks. Apology accepted."  
He nodded and went back to ignoring me, the conversation clearly over, eyes closed and hands held together on the table top.  
I sat there for another minute before I moved away from him, going to stand beside Naruto, who was waiting with patience he only seemed to have for pranks. For the next twenty minutes Naruto shook with anticipation as he stood in front of the door waiting for our Jonin-sensei to stroll through the door. I sensed Kakashi-sensei before I saw him.  
My chakra sensing skills were not anything revolutionary, but they were above average, which is why I suppose both Naruto and Sasuke didn't sense him coming. There was a definite spike in chakra in the air and I took an apprehensive step back as the door slid opened and the little chalk brush tumbled down onto a wild mop of white hair.  
When I saw Kakashi-sensei, I knew right away that the show did him no justice.  
On the outside he seemed like a completely harmless man. His shoulders were slightly slouched, hands deep in his pockets, seemingly not paying attention to his surroundings; the only reason I could tell that wasn't true was because I knew what to look for, I already knew the level of danger that lurked beneath the surface. However, I knew he was no threat to me - that didn't stop me from taking an extra step back when I saw him. It was the bitterness in his eyes that truly made me take pause.  
Knowing his backstory felt like it was cheating. I understood him in ways that few people did, more than he would probably like. I knew why he felt the way he felt, what caused his sorrows, without having ever spoken a word to him.  
That bitterness was what got him into taking a Genin team in the first place. He gave the boys a passing glance, his eyes sticking on me a bit longer, likely intrigued by the way I was watching him, curious even.  
"How can I put this…" he said. "My first impression of you is that you're a bunch of idiots."  
I snorted, earning another wondering look from the man. Sasuke and Naruto mirrored the look. One didn't typically snort at a declaration of distaste.  
"Meet me on the roof in five minutes," Kakashi-sensei said and flickered out of the room.  
The boys rushed up the stairs and I followed at a slower pace. No doubt Naruto and Sasuke made it up there under the allotted five minutes considering they both ran up the stairs. I took closer to six minutes, something Kakashi-sensei informed me of immediately.  
"You're late, that was six minutes and eight seconds."  
"You were late too, by two and a half hours."  
"I had to pick up something."  
Unable to help myself, I replied, "And I got lost on the path of life."  
The expression on his face clearly told me that this was not what he had expected out of me.  
When he was given his team, he probably had been given files on all three of us. In my file I knew there was nothing but glowing reports about what a kind student I was, even if I wasn't the hardest worker out there. Whether or not I studied didn't change the fact that I made a point to not sass teachers. The only people I ever sassed was Naruto and Shikamaru. I wasn't sure what was possessing me to talk back to my new Jonin-sensei but I was rolling with it.  
"I was told that the blond was going to give me problems, not you."  
"Aren't I just full of surprises," I said with a innocent grin.  
"Alrighty then…" Kakashi-sensei trailed off, perched on the railing in front of us. "Now that we're all here, let's get started." An awkward silence ensued. "Why don't you introduce yourselves. You know, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future?"  
"Why don't you go first?" I murmured, quirking an eyebrow.  
"Fine. I'm Kakashi Hatake… things I like, dislike… I don't really feel like telling you that. Never really thought of any future dreams. I got lots of hobbies."  
"That was so incredibly enlightening."  
Naruto piped up before Kakashi-sensei had a chance to say anything. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be Hokage, believe it!" Kakashi-sensei rolled his eyes. "I like instant cup ramen, but I like Ichiraku's ramen better. I hate the three minutes to wait for the ramen, and I like testing different ramen flavors. My dream is to be the best Hokage ever!"  
The lines were almost exactly the way they were in the show. I looked at Sasuke expectantly, already knowing what was going to come out of his mouth. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have isn't a dream, cause I will make it a reality. My dream isn't a dream because I will make it a reality, to destroy a certain someone. I will kill him and restore my clan."  
The utter lack of emotion in his voice was disturbing to say the least. He had no problem declaring his utter hatred for somebody and that his only goal in life was to kill this person; the only thing more unnerving was the fact that nobody else seemed to even bat an eye.  
"How 'bout you," Kakashi-sensei said reluctantly, eye trained on me.  
I clucked my tongue. "Kasumi Himura. I like to read, I dislike idiots, and my only hobby is keeping that idiot from getting himself killed," I said and jabbed a thumb at Naruto. "I try not to have any dreams of the future because this isn't exactly the type of career where you live long enough to fulfill them."  
"Alright, great," Kakashi-sensei said and clapped his hands together. "We have a mission tomorrow."  
"What already?" Naruto cried, bouncing from his spot on the roof.  
"Careful or you might bounce off the roof," I muttered, the smile on my lips betraying the joke.  
Naruto grinned. "Whatever."  
"Adorable," Kakashi-sensei said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Your mission tomorrow is a survival mission. My survival mission."  
I bit back a snarky comment. He went on about how only a few of the kids who graduated would actually go on to be shinobi, rattling off a bunch of information meant to intimidate us. After he finished he looked somewhat satisfied by Naruto and Sasuke's reactions, though my blank expression left much to be desired. I could remember the bell test with crystal clarity.  
Then he disappeared with a poof and I realized I had really tuned them out for a long time.  
"What did he say?"  
"Meet him at training ground 20 at 10AM sharp."  
"So actually 2PM," I said and stood up, brushing the dirt off my pants. "I'm gonna go find Shikamaru and Chōji, you guys wanna come?"  
"No," Sasuke said flatly and strode away.  
"Arrogant bastard," Naruto muttered and moved to stand beside me, his answer fairly obvious.  
I let him go off on his own, not too keen on pushing him too far yet. I'd gotten away with it once and I probably wouldn't get away with it again.  
.-.-.  
Shikamaru and Chōji were already waiting for us at the usual spot in the park under the largest oak tree I had ever seen. Naruto and I had stopped by my house on the way here so I could grab a couple of books to keep me busy for the next few hours.  
Most of what I had to learn for medical-ninjutsu was the theory and biology. I'd already gotten the chakra control for it - the only positive to having somewhat small chakra reserves was that they were much easier to control than bigger ones. I'd started taking notes to help myself remember most of it but all of it was a work in progress, and I had a lot of work ahead of me.  
I pressed my thumb against my notebook and undid the seal. So far the only seal I had gotten fairly easily was a locking seal that I used to keep all of my notebooks safe from prying eyes. It was simple and was activated by a thumbprint so nobody but me could open it. The notebook fell open and revealed pages filled with notes written in English.  
The reason I had locked my notebooks wasn't because it was anything sensitive, at least not in my medical notebooks.  
I didn't care if people saw what was written.  
I cared if they saw how it was written.  
The way it worked still wasn't something I had worked out yet but all I knew was that I could still read, write, understand, and speak English as well as Japanese. I had no idea what language my thoughts were in mostly because I didn't want to end up confusing myself and messing up whatever I had going.  
Writing in English was just faster and more comfortable than writing in Japanese.  
"What're you doing?" Chōji asked, keeping his eyes to himself.  
"Taking notes… I want to learn medical-ninjutsu," I said, holding my attention on the book.  
"I thought you already tried that and gave up after a couple of days," Shikamaru commented. "Something about it being annoying and complicated."  
"It is annoying and complicated," I said. "But I think it would be good for me to learn."  
"Wouldn't you be better off learning some kind of cool jutsu or something?" Naruto called from his spot on the other side of the tree practicing chakra exercises.  
"Er… not really," I said. I bit my lip. "I'm thinking of getting into poison making."  
Shikamaru busted out laughing and my cheeks flushed crimson. I had gotten the idea after going through some of my books that were sitting on my shelf, checking to see what I needed to get from the library and what I already had at home. I found the old herbology book mama and papa had bought me for my eleventh birthday. Just for kicks I had gone through some of the pages when I found the poisonous plants section and got the idea of seeing it as a possible specialization.  
Everybody had to have a specialization. The most common specialization was ninjutsu, followed by taijutsu. Not a lot of people specialized in genjutsu because of how difficult it could be, and I had never had a knack for it so I knew that it wasn't too valid of an option for me. For people like me who weren't particularly good at any of those, there were other paths available to us, like Tenten getting into being a weapon mistress.  
Due to my wind chakra nature, I was ideal to get into poisons because it would be easier for me than most to keep control of any airborne poisons. The idea hadn't even been on my radar until last night and now I starting to warm up to the idea.  
"Why're you laughing?"  
"It's just… not something I thought I was going to hear," he chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye. "It's actually a good idea. The last thing people are going to expect from this tiny, cute little girl is for her to toss poison in their face."  
"Yeah, well, I'm not sure yet," I said. "There's nobody else in the village who works with poisons so there's nobody to teach me. I'd have to learn it entirely through books and self-experience. Plus… I don't know whether mama and papa are going to be too keen on the idea."  
"You did really well during the herbology classes," Chōji pointed out.  
That was because I already had learnt all of it in my high school classes. What the Academy covered in classes was meant for use in the field if there was no medic-nin within immediate reach and all of it was medicinal herbs, not poisonous.  
"I'm not going to be jumping to any kind of decisions yet," I said. I just had to start fast if I did want to start.  
The sooner I started, the sooner I could begin building up a tolerance for poisons. It would be more difficult when I was older because my immune system would have been better developed and less susceptible to change.  
I closed my books and sighed, a headache forming in the back of my head. This was a lot of information for one day.  
"I don't want to think about anything else today," I announced and put my head on Chōji's shoulder, using it as a pillow. "I'm taking a nap."  
I'd think about all of this later; I'd had enough to think about for one day. My head felt like it was going to explode. I let the warmth of the day comfort me and I slipped out of consciousness, letting the blissful darkness soothe my headache.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER SIX  
.-.-.  
My assumption about how late Kakashi-sensei was going to be was spot on.  
Naruto and Sasuke both got there at the time he had given us. I chose to wait a couple of hours and sleep in a bit before getting there two hours after the time set, leaving a bit over an hour left of time before the test actually began.  
"You're late again!" Naruto bellowed.  
"No 'hello Kasu', or a 'how are you doing, Kasu'?" I inquired, settling down in the shade and pulling out my books and a pen.  
"Why are you late? You were never late at the Academy!"  
"Neither was Iruka-sensei."  
Naruto humphed, crossing his arms against his chest and falling back on his rear. I rummaged through my bag and pulled out a breakfast bar, munching away as I flipped through the herbal book.  
"Hey we aren't supposed to eat!" Naruto protested.  
"Like that's going to happen," I said. "I'm a growing girl and I need my food."  
That and I already understood why Kakashi-sensei had asked us not to eat and I wasn't going to put myself at any disadvantage. Naruto glowered at me, his stomach grumbling, and I reached into my bag, pulling out an extra bar and holding it out to him. The boy cheered and grabbed the bar out of my hands, skipping off to do who knows what.  
Now that he was dealt with, I could focus on the books I had brought with me.  
I noticed the more I went through the herbal book the more poison making seemed to somewhat simplistic. Typically, it was a single plant - though I saw a few that had combinations of two or more plants - that had qualities that could be concentrated and extracted to create the poison. That was where the skill came in. Being able to properly extract and concentrate the poison for proper potency was the tricky part, something that would come with practice.  
The further into the book I went, the more complicated the poisons got. One near the end took two days, nine plant types, and seven pages worth of detailed instructions - the antidote looked like it was at least twice as much work.  
Overall though they were fairly easy. The difficult part came when you had to make the antidotes. The sheer amount of antidote types was a overwhelming; creams, salves, liquids, blocks, teas. Certain antidotes had to be injected directly into the bloodstream while others had to be ingested. Even that though was simply memorization which was no problem for me given enough time. What does what, what can counteract what, all of it I just had to memorize as long as I could get my hands on the information. I was like a sponge ready to soak up any information in my path.  
Right now, I was simply starting with the basics. The first poisons that the book spoke about were multiple versions of fast-acting paralysis poison, both liquid and powder forms. The first listed powder form poison was crushed up lotus corniculatus, or it's common name of Bird's Foot Trefoil mixed with chenopodium ambrosioides, better known as Mexican Tea. It not only would cause paralysis but dizziness and convulsions, making it useful to incapacitate an opponent. The cure for paralysis was listed as Chandra Kalka, an internally administered herbal paste that went along with a special herbal tea - I noted this as being the cure for more than just this combination.  
On my way home yesterday, I'd also gotten a plant dictionary that would serve to be as much use to me if not more. The librarian gave me a sly wink when she had handed it to me and said that returning it would be optional because they had another copy of it.  
The book itself was almost as thick as a tree trunk.  
I'd gotten a brand new notebook as well, to take notes of what plants I thought would be the most useful to me in the future. Thankfully the plant dictionary came with pictures for each plant so I'd be able to tell them apart with a bit less difficulty.  
Where I'd actually find all of these was my big question. From what I read, very few of these could be supported by the forests and climate of Konoha, probably the biggest reason for our lack of poison users.  
"What the hell is that?" Sasuke said, snatching the notebook with my writing off the ground beside me - I hadn't even noticed him.  
I grabbed it back from him and resealed it again, glaring. "Don't touch my stuff."  
"That wasn't Japanese," he said.  
"No, it wasn't."  
"What was it then?"  
"None of your damn business, that's what it is."  
"She won't tell any of us," Naruto said. "Shikamaru already tried."  
I nodded at Naruto. "Exactly, so drop it," I said.  
Never one to turn down a challenge Sasuke jut hit chin up in defiance. "Why won't you tell me?"  
"Because it's none of your damn business," I repeated.  
The tension in the air was as thick as a brick wall. He was determined to find out the language, and I was just as determined to not have to explain it to him.  
"Look at that, only a day together as a team and you're already fighting," Kakashi-sensei said as he walked over, looking at us in mild amusement. "Why am I not surprised."  
"What are you trying to hide?" Sasuke pressed, completely ignoring Kakashi-sensei.  
I snorted. "Nothing, it's just my poison notes."  
"Then why are they written in that weird language?"  
"Practice? Why does it even matter?"  
"I've never heard of that language! I've never even seen it before!"  
"Well obviously, I made it up myself," I scoffed, the lie flowing easily. That was believable enough, right? I mean if somebody can be a Jonin by thirteen, I could have created my own language by twelve… hopefully. "Now leave it alone. We have better things to do."  
The look on Sasuke's face clearly said that this would not be the end of the conversation but he let it drop, turning his gaze over to our sensei. That boy was almost as stubborn as I was - almost. I had a notorious amount of stubborn in my possession and it took a lot for me to give in, though I at least tried to admit when I was wrong.  
Kakashi-sensei was unimpressed at being ignored but I could see it in his posture, his shoulders no longer slouched and his hands pulled out of his pockets, that he was intrigued. "What language?"  
"Doesn't matter," I dismissed. "Let's get down to training."  
A lone eyebrow rose but I guess he didn't care enough to press it. "Alright then. Moving on," he said, sticking his hands back into his pockets. "To our training."  
"Wait just a minute!" Naruto shouted. "Why are you so late? We've been here for hours!"  
"Oh, you know, a black cat walked in my path, so I had to go the long way around to get here."  
"You've gotta be joking!"  
"Let it go Naruto," I muttered, patting him on the shoulder. "No point in getting mad over it."  
"But - "  
"Save it for something that matters, you're gonna need that energy for later," I said soothingly. "Don't get worked up over something stupid like that guy being late." I jerked my thumb at Kakashi-sensei who probably didn't appreciate being referred to as 'that guy'. Naruto sighed and nodded.  
"If that's all settled," he said. "Can we get started?" The two bells jingled in his hands as he held them out in front of us, a glint in his eye that wasn't the most encouraging. "Each Jonin has a test for their students. Mine is the hardest. You see, only two of you are going to pass."  
Naruto and Sasuke both sharpened at those words.  
I already knew that this would be far easier that it had been in the show, so I wasn't too worried - I knew what was coming.  
"You must get these bells from my possession. If you want to eat anytime soon, I suggest that you hurry, because no food is allowed during the test. I have not yet had a single student pass this so beware. If you do not come at me with the intent to kill me, you will not succeed. If you do not get the bells by the time the sun goes down, everybody fails and you all get to go back to the Academy."  
I bit my tongue to avoid any kind of comments that would give away what I knew. Right now, I needed to just keep silent.  
"That's so unfair!" Naruto said.  
"Not everything's fair in life," Sasuke said with an eyeroll.  
"This test doesn't make much sense," I blurted out.  
"I think I explained it fairly clearly."  
"Oh, you were clear enough," I replied. "I just don't see the point behind it."  
"I want to see which of you is the strongest."  
"By pitting us up against each other? We're a team, we should be working together, not against each other," I said and frowned, trying to get the point across that I understood what the test was about - the way I had planned to complete it wasn't exactly how it had been in the show, and definitely wasn't what Kakashi-sensei was expecting. This was plan A, though. If I could stop it before it happened that would be ideal, but if it didn't work out, I had a plan B. "It's backwards."  
"You're not always going to agree with what you get ordered to do," he said.  
"But we're a team," I protested.  
He didn't have an answer for me and the possibility of this actually working had a grin tugging at the side of my mouth, fighting to break out over my face. I looked over at the boys. Naruto it seemed agreed with me, but he didn't want to use his words to show that.  
In true Naruto fashion, the little blond whipped out a kunai and charged forward, shouting some sort of incoherent string of foul words. There was no point in stopping him, Kakashi-sensei would deal with him for me. Kakashi-sensei looked at him in disdain and had Naruto's hand trapped behind his back, completely disabled, in the blink of an eye. I let out a low whistle.  
"Fast," I commented. Sasuke made an appreciative noise.  
"I don't recall saying start," Kakashi-sensei said slowly. "But I admire your intent - that much was correct, you really were coming at me with the intention to destroy me."  
Kakashi-sensei let go of his arm and gave Naruto a shove forward.  
Our new sensei had taken the opportunity of Naruto's attack to skate over having to answer my question, dashing any hopes I had of resolving this without going through the test. I had a feeling that this was going to be the outcome and had prepared accordingly, another plan in my head.  
Naruto looked disgruntled but not discouraged and something told me that this was going to be a lot more fun to watch in person.  
"Now then, let's start for real. Ready?" The boys both sank down in their knees, ready to spring into action. "Go."  
Kakashi-sensei disappeared into a puff of smoke.  
I easily bunched up my legs and sprung upwards, the wind whistling in my ears. Lithely I flipped once in the air and landed a short ways into the forest.  
Wasting no time, I snuck forward, perching myself in a tree and activating just about the only genjutsu I could manage, one that would mostly mask my presence. It took little-to-no chakra to maintain, so it was ideal for me to use. Sasuke had hidden in a tree as well, though he either hadn't tried to mask his chakra or he was doing a really shitty job of it; I could sense that he was about twenty feet to my left, also hiding in a tree.  
Naruto hadn't tried to hide at all.  
He stood proudly in the middle of the field, ready to take on our sensei like the brash idiot he was, and just as I had been counting on. He needed to serve as my distraction without knowing it.  
"Of course you're not hiding," Kakashi-sensei muttered. "Well I'll just have to use you for my first lesson then, won't I? I had to make an example out of somebody. Where do I start… oh yeah, the first kind of jutsu, taijutsu, the hand-to-hand combat of the shinobi world." Kakashi-sensei reached into the pack and pulled out his book, motioning at Naruto to come. "Try and hit me."  
To his credit, Naruto was actually not bad at taijutsu. His speed was decent, and I knew from experience that he had some good force behind his attacks, but he was too brash and reckless, no technique or form to his moves. It was difficult to predict if you didn't know him but even then anybody above Chunin level could react quickly enough that that didn't matter.  
Kakashi-sensei had no problem deflecting his attacks whilst reading.  
It was at this point that I set my plan in action.  
I hopped over to where Sasuke was, carefully avoiding rustling any of the trees as I made my way through them. I landed on a branch slightly behind and below him, making enough noise so that I wouldn't take him entirely by surprise.  
"Do you have a plan?" I inquired. He shook his head warily and I smirked. "Good, because I do."  
"I can't wait to hear it," he said, each word dripping with sarcasm.  
"Naruto's going to keep Kakashi-sensei busy for at least a couple of minutes, and I can sneak in and grab the bells while he does, but I need you to stay out of my way," I said.  
He snorted. "I think it'll be the other way around."  
"Not really."  
"I'm better than you are," he said. "If we attack, you'll slow me down and get in my way."  
I resisted the urge to punch him in his smug face. "That's all fine and good, but you literally won't be able to see me, so anything you do can be in my way."  
He scrunched up his face in confusion. I had been long outlawed from using my kekkei genkai anywhere in public and I hadn't been allowed to talk about it to anybody. I'd only ever experimented in short bursts in my room when I was all alone, so I at least had some idea of what I was doing  
"I don't have time to explain now but I have a kekkei genkai. I can become completely undetectable. You can't hear me, see me, even sense my chakra. No matter what you will be in my way because you will have no way of knowing how to stay out of it unless you are right freaking here," I rushed, keeping half an eye on Naruto and how he was progressing with Kakashi-sensei.  
Sasuke scowled and rolled his eyes. "This really isn't the time to be lying," he hissed.  
For a fraction of a second, I allowed myself to flicker out of existence. He didn't have to say anything else because I knew I got my message across clearly enough. "Don't move," I said, my voice hard as steel.  
Naruto didn't know it yet but he was being a perfect distraction.  
I flicked the switch, cloaking myself, and started the internal clock.  
One, two, three…  
I pushed myself out of the tree and rocketed towards the bells, carefully monitoring how much chakra I was putting into my legs for speed. I covered the distance in a matter of seconds. Obviously neither of the boys had seen my technique in action yet, but Kakashi-sensei probably at least had an idea of what it was supposed to do. The file he got on my would have talked about it, though there hadn't been much to note because any knowledge on the technique was based off of the shinobi who had saved me and what little experimenting they tried to do. Once they realized how hard it was on my body to be using it at such a young age, however, the hokage deemed it untestable, so there wasn't much known about it.  
Four, five, six…  
I landed next to Naruto. He was in the water, still out of view from Kakashi-sensei. I placed a hand on him, causing him to flicker out momentarily. His eyes grew wide and he stiffened at the sensation of the technique.  
"Don't move, don't make any noise," I said and let go, unable to afford to talk to him any longer. The only way I could speak to him was by pulling him under the cloak, but that meant it took more chakra to maintain the technique.  
Naruto thankfully listened and when I let go he didn't say a word, sinking back down into the water uneasily, his eyes flickering around. He had no idea what was going on. I would have to explain what was happening to him later, when I wasn't on a time limit.  
Seven, eight, nine…  
Kakashi-sensei seemed to notice the sudden absence of my chakra and the odd flicker in Naruto's. Even when I had the genjutsu active there was a small enough chakra signature that he could at least tell I was somewhere in that general area. Now it would have entirely disappeared, typically a major cause for worry. That much must have been in my file because he didn't panic at the absence.  
He may not have known what was happening, he just knew that something was happening, and he had gone on high alert, his book hovering low enough that he was clearly not looking at it anymore.  
Ten, eleven, twelve…  
I was taking too long. I shoved a bit of extra chakra into my legs and rocketed forward to yank the bells off of his belt. He immediately felt their absence and struck out in the general area. I bent backwards, nearly taking the shot to the face, inhaling sharply - I had expected something like that, and thankfully I was fast enough to react, because that would have hurt a lot.  
Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen…  
I skipped a short distance away before I released the technique, holding both of the bells in one hand, breathing heavily.  
"What the hell…" Kakashi-sensei muttered.  
"Here, catch," I said and tossed one of the bells at Naruto, flinging the other in Sasuke's general direction. He picked up on what I was doing and came out of his hiding spot to snatch it out of the air, looking from me to the bell. "There."  
Kakashi-sensei was looking at me in a way I had never seen anybody look at me before, like he was trying to dissect me with his eyes, take me apart and find out how I tick. "So that's the infamous technique."  
"Yup."  
"It uses up a fair amount of chakra."  
"Yup."  
"That was… what, a quarter of your chakra reserves in one go?"  
I paused for a second. "About that, yeah. I try not to use it unless I know it's going to be effective."  
"Uh huh," he said slowly. He scratched his head. "Why did you give them the bells without taking one for yourself?"  
"They're my teammates," I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
"And?"  
"It's just what teammates do. That entire situation played to my strengths, but not really either of theirs," I explained, considering my words. "You weren't expecting me to do that, therefore it was fairly easy for me to sneak up and steal the bells without having to actually fight you - teammates use their strengths to aid their teammates."  
"Why didn't you work together with them, or tell them what you were planning?"  
I clicked my tongue. "Actually, I did, you just didn't notice. I told Sasuke while Naruto was distracting you, and when you felt Naruto's chakra flicker away was when I told him. I didn't work with them because there was too good of a chance that they would just end up hitting me without meaning to. They haven't been exposed to the technique either and I didn't have anywhere near enough time to try and get anything besides the basics across to Sasuke, and all I told Naruto was not to move, because I knew he would listen to me."  
We hadn't worked as a team, so much as I worked around them, but it all worked out in the end.  
"I suppose that works," he said and shrugged. "It's not what I had wanted you to get out of this exercise but I can't deny that you did as I asked. I guess that you all pass."  
"Wait, what? But we don't all have bells," Sasuke pointed out. "You said that only two of us would pass."  
"I lied."  
Sasuke went to say something but I elbowed him in the ribs and glared. "Let's just take what we get," I hissed. "No need to mess it up."  
It was easy for him to talk considering if Kakashi-sensei changed his mind, I'd be the one to fail not him. Not only was I was the only one out of the three of us to not be holding a bell but I'd been the one to take a reckless chance that could have forced my teammates into a bad situation if it didn't work out properly.  
"When life gives you lemons, don't ask why," Kakashi-sensei said. "Just take them and go make some lemonade. I have nothing else planned for the day - I had been expecting this to take longer than it did - so you guys can go. Be back at the same time, same place tomorrow."  
The three of us turned and went to where our stuff was sitting beneath the tree. I shoved all of my stuff back into my bag, making sure that my notebooks were all sealed and that I had hadn't lost my page in the herbal book, trying to ignore the stare burning a hole in the nape of my neck.  
.-.-.  
Sasuke broke away from us as soon as we exited the training grounds. Naruto shot him an annoyed look and I steered us in the other direction before anything could come out of it. The boy was unusually quiet for the entire walk to Ichiraku's.  
There were only two times that Naruto was ever silent: he had either been asked to shut up, or something was bothering him.  
"Is something wrong?" I asked, staring at the birds flying by, hands deep in my pockets.  
"Why did you give me your bell?"  
I stopped, turning my head to look at him. "Like I told Kakashi-sensei, it's just what teammates do."  
"Yeah but… you didn't even keep one for yourself. You gave one to that idiot before you kept one for yourself."  
"He may be an idiot, but we're his teammates now," I said. "It's like I said to him a couple days ago, you guys need to get along because you're stuck with each other now."  
"Whatever," he said and I let the topic drop. There was a pause before he spoke again. "I guess… thank you. It means a lot that you'd… you know… be willing to fail so that I wouldn't have to, even though I was the one who messed up."  
"You didn't mess up," I said instantly but cringed a bit when I realized that he actually had, even if it had worked to my advantage. "Well okay, you sorta did, but… everybody messes up - that's what teammates are for. You mess up, I fix it. Let it be a lesson to you of what not to do."  
As much of an asset as being unpredictable can be, there's also a limit of when it's just bound to get you hurt, or worse, get one of your teammates hurt. By nature Naruto was impulsive. He always has been as far as I could remember, and I doubted that would ever change. Recklessness and impulsiveness tend to go hand in hand.  
"But still… we're teammates, yeah but… is that it?" he inquired, his voice sounding measured and slow in a way I'd never heard him speak before.  
I opened my mouth and closed it again - he couldn't look me in the eye. Now I was starting to get it. "I would have done it even if we weren't teammates, because you're my best friend, and I'd do anything for you. You deserve to have graduated, and you deserve to be where you are, even if you didn't pass the same test as the rest of us."  
He didn't say anything else on the matter, but his mood was noticeably better, his shoulders less tight and his back a bit straighter. I entwined my hands behind my neck and let my head fall back, listening as Naruto launched into his plan for his newest prank.  
.-.-.  
"You know," mama said later that night as she was pulling her hands through my hair, a thoughtful look on her face. "You really should cut your hair."  
"No."  
"Oh, come on sweetie - "  
"No."  
"You know it's going to start getting in the way."  
"I can braid it back, I can put it in a ponytail, I can put it up in a bun," I said, putting down the book in my lap and using my hands as a count for each different hairstyle I listed off. "I could wear a headband, I could put it in pigtails, and I know there's more I just can't think of it."  
Papa snorted from his spot on the other couch; he very pointedly stared back down at his hands when mama whipped around to glare at him.  
It was just after dinner and I had brought all of my medical books down with me to study in the living room while mama and papa watched shows on TV and talked about 'adult stuff'. I was making good progress through the book, though I still wasn't sure about how I could actually get my hands on any of the plants. I hoped that the Yamanaka might have at least some of these plants, but then there was the problem of getting them to sell the plants to me.  
I was also considering asking Kakashi-sensei if he had any ideas, but I was doubtful, considering that as far as I knew, he had no ties to the field of poison besides the basics taught in the Academy.  
"But dear it's just getting so long," mama exclaimed. "You're nearly sitting on it!"  
I pulled my hair over my shoulder and pet it protectively. I couldn't remember the last time I had gotten it cut, but I couldn't bring myself to take any of the length off. "But I like it long."  
"I'm not saying you have to cut it all off, just a little bit," mama said.  
"I don't want it cut," I said and shook my head vigorously. "I'm not cutting it."  
Mama sighed. She muttered to herself but let it go, returning her attention to the TV. Papa smirked at me from behind her head, not daring let her see that he was glad I had won - he always said that he loved how long my hair was. No matter what mama said, though, I wouldn't cut my hair. I couldn't tell them why either because they wouldn't understand.  
It probably was a bit too long, realistically, but I couldn't help it - in all the short memories I had of her, my mother had worn her hair long, and it just felt right to do the same.  
.-.-.  
For the first time since Kakashi-sensei had been assigned to us as our new sensei, I was actually on time for training the next day. I had packed extra, enough to keep me busy for at least three hours, but quickly found that I wouldn't need all of it.  
"Spar with me."  
I let my bag slide off of my shoulder, sizing up the Uchiha standing in front of me.  
He had a glint of determination in his eyes, his hands fisted at his side, his expression an otherwise blank slate. I already knew he would have the upper hand and so did he. Potentially that arrogance could be used against him but I didn't know how far he would underestimate me, especially now that he'd seen what my kekkei genkai could do.  
Besides a few kunai, I had no weapons on me, so I'd be relying almost solely on my taijutsu abilities and the scarce use of my kekkei genkai.  
"Alright," I said and leapt over towards the clearing a little ways from the tree, tugging two kunai out of the holsters and holding them at my side. Sasuke followed my lead and stood across from me in a couple of seconds, looking me up and down appraisingly.  
Sure, he'd seen me fight in class - he'd even been the one to fight me a few times, and won each time.  
Now I had a bit more to to bring to the table.  
Surprisingly he made the first move, soaring through the air and launching kunai at me at high speed. I dipped and dodged, fluidly twisting out of the way. A couple skimmed the side of my arms but none of them drew blood. He landed with a soft thud a ways behind me and I pressed my foot against the ground, spinning around, creating a huge cloud of dust. Then I flickered out of existence.  
To avoid using up all my chakra before training even began, I wanted to try and use my kekkei genkai as little as possible. I barely held the technique for two seconds, enough time to hop out of the dust cloud and land a bit behind him, before I released it. Wasting no time I darted towards him, flinging my kunai as I ran. Sasuke spun around and deflected them, facing me head on.  
I went low, attempting to sweep his legs out from under him. He jumped up over my legs and I twisted my body up, planting both hands on the ground and pushing off, dodging a blow he aimed at my head and gaining some space in one move. He was on me before I hit the ground and I barely moved out of the way from the first barrage of punches but he nailed me on the second attempt, catching me in the stomach and chest.  
I turned the technique on, taking a deep breath, and moved to his side, removing the cloak and striking at his side, breaking his guard. Amazingly he reacted with lightning speed, shoving me away and aiming a kick at my chest that I caught with the side of my arm. I pushed back against it and ducked away to avoid another hit.  
This is when he really got serious.  
His hands flew in a flurry of hand signs. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"  
I poured chakra into my legs and sprinted out of the way, watching as it seared the ground where I had stood. So that's how this was going to be.  
I may not have been able to do many ninjutsu, I did have a few useful ones up my sleeve - I just had to be careful, my chakra was starting to dip lower than I would like. I used the least chakra-heavy jutsu that I knew and slipped my fingers through the hand seals easily. "Wind Release: Wind Blade!"  
It was the most basic of wind jutsus, creating a gust of wind that goes fast enough that it, as the name entails, resembles a blade, cutting through enemies. The jutsu varied depending on the users mastery of it and the chakra put into it. In the book, the picture showed multiple bursts of wind cutting through an enemy, but mine wasn't nearly that strong, which was why I felt safe using it. I could only create one gust of wind strong enough to dent the practice dummies on the training grounds without actually slicing them open.  
Even if it wasn't strong enough to cut, it was strong enough to knock over.  
The wind took Sasuke by surprise and slammed into him before he had a chance to move out of the way. I pounced on him, going in for the 'kill' but he recovered quickly and blocked my attack, tossing me off of him. I tried to twist around so I'd land on my feet mid-air but I hadn't been expecting him to recover in the way he did and I ended up landing a couple of feet away, hitting my back hard. The air was forced from my lungs and I gasped, eyes wide.  
Sasuke froze, looking… unsure? Whatever. It didn't matter.  
I closed my eyes and regulated my breathing, avoiding gasping for air. That didn't help - if anything it just made it worse. After a couple of minutes I got my lungs working normally again. "I think that's enough for today," I wheezed.  
The boy nodded and walked over, offering me a hand up. I took it and he hauled me to my feet, dropping my hand as soon as I was standing properly and shuffling back. He smirked arrogantly, making the Seal of Reconciliation as was customary after a spar. I mirrored the hand sign and that was the end of that. It was a short match but I had taken a serious hit to my chakra levels, having used up a quarter of my reserves, which may not have seemed like a lot, but I had an entire days worth of training ahead of me, and there was no telling how much I was going to need.  
The rest of the wait went by easily. Naruto arrived ten minutes after Sasuke and I sparred, seemingly in a genuinely good mood, something that made my chest feel a bit lighter. We chatted for a bit, with him doing most of the talking, but soon enough Kakashi-sensei strolled onto the training grounds, whistling away.  
"Alright kiddies," he said. "Let's get this thing started."  
"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed. "Are gonna learn some cool new jutsus? Like some really big exploding jutsu or something that like makes somebody freeze up or - "  
"Slow down there, Naruto. You've got work to do before you start learning any kind of new jutsus," he said.  
"But - "  
"No buts. I've got other work for you two," he said, looking at Naruto and Sasuke. "Something to keep you both busy for the day."  
"What are we going to do?" I asked.  
"You'll see. Now you two, come over here," he said.  
I plopped back down and sat under the tree, watching him show the boys a few chakra control exercises with the leaf and explain what it does. Naruto sat and watched, despite the fact that I'd shown that to him ages ago and he actually had a fairly good grasp of the exercise - I had expected him to loudly proclaim his mastery of the technique. Sasuke too was taking the lesson fairly well, intently paying attention to Kakashi-sensei as he ran them through the basics of the exercise.  
That probably would keep them busy for a while, at least, though an entire day I wasn't so sure.  
After a couple of minutes Kakashi-sensei came back and sat down opposite of me.  
"That's not going to keep them busy for the whole day," I said.  
"I know. I just need them occupied for maybe half an hour or so."  
I shrugged and sat quietly, waiting for him to keep talking, but he didn't, instead just staring at me for a full minute, not saying a word.  
"Uh… sensei? What are you doing?"  
"Staring."  
"I noticed. Why?"  
"Yesterday after you all went home, I went and talked to the Hokage," Kakashi-sensei said. "And he agreed that some amount of… testing should be done on your kekkei genkai."  
That was a surprise. "He's said it was untestable."  
"Testing might not be the word… I think experimenting is probably better."  
I narrowed my eyes warily. It wasn't like it had been outlawed without reason. "Why now?"  
"There are more people than just you involved now and it'd be preferable if more about it was known to avoid any kind of accidents during combat. There are a few things that I'm curious about and that would be helpful to know."  
"Ok."  
He took that as an invitation to begin with the questioning. "How long can you maintain it for?"  
"Without dying? Probably a minute, maybe a little over."  
"And with dying?"  
"Maybe a minute and a half, tough to say considering I'm still alive."  
"Yesterday, when you touched Naruto, I felt his chakra disappear."  
"When I'm using it, if I touch somebody, they are cloaked along with me. The more people who are being covered by it, the more chakra it takes, depending on how much chakra they have." So cloaking somebody like Naruto who has an overwhelming amount of chakra isn't something to be done lightly.  
He sat back, pondering my answers. "Even through clothes?" I held up my hands that had gloves on them, flicked the technique on and put my hand on his arm, pulling him under. After a second I pulled away and turned the technique off. "I assume that's a 'yes'. So if contact with another person brings them under the… cloak, what happens if you get hit by a jutsu from them?"  
I furrowed my eyebrows. That was a good question. "I'm not sure, actually, I've never used it in combat before yesterday so I've never tested that."  
"Mind if I test it?"  
"Go for it."  
"Alright, stand exactly where you are."  
I flipped on the technique and didn't move a muscle, waiting for his jutsu to hit me. It was just a simple, gentle gust of wind, washing over me.  
The wind hit and I saw Kakashi-sensei appear to me, his chakra causing a strain on the technique, but as soon as the gust was gone he disappeared again. For the first time I actually had to struggle to maintain the technique. Even if for a split second I felt it wane, like there was an overload on it, though I managed to hold on until it was over.  
The jutsu ended and I immediately released the technique.  
"So it does work that way then," he murmured. "What was it like?"  
"It… was weird," I said. "It's almost like it causes interference? That was the first time I actually had to struggle to hold onto it."  
"But it does work."  
"Yeah."  
"Interesting. How much chakra do you have left?"  
I did a quick gauge. "About a third."  
He sighed. "I guess we should stop for the day, then." He looked back over at the boys. "Why don't you go join them for a bit, practice that with them."  
"I've been able to do that exercise since I was nine."  
"I see… I guess I could move you ahead to tree walking."  
"I know that too," I said. "And I can walk on water."  
"Then I have nothing that I can do for you," he said and shrugged.  
I bit my lip, looking to my book and then back at him. "I uh… actually had something that I wanted to ask you about." He lifted an eyebrow and made a motion for me to go on. "Well I'm thinking about going into poisons and I was just wondering if you knew somebody who could teach me or help me out and if you knew somewhere I could buy those plants."  
He scratched the back of his head thoughtfully. "Well… I might, but I don't think it's exactly what you have in mind."  
"Really?" I asked excitedly.  
"Yeah. You're lucky you asked today, actually. A friend of mine owes me a favor, you see, and he has some summons. One of the summons that he has at the moment is known to include a summon that can aid in the creation of poison and the gathering of the plants."  
I grinned, smothering a squeal. The man's eyes widened and he shuffled back slightly, watching me bounce up and down with an equal amount of annoyance and horror.  
"Thank you! Oh my gosh, thank you so much!" I gushed.  
He laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, no problem. I have to go make sure that he still has it anyways, but I can probably bring it by tomorrow for training and we can see how you do."  
This was so much better than I had even hoped for. A summon was infinitely better than anything I had been hoping for. The potential was astronomical. For the rest of the day I couldn't stop myself from smiling, nothing was able to crash the ecstatic mood I was in.  
All in all, I guess I could say that it was a good day.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER SEVEN  
.-.-.  
The next morning, we met at the same time, in the same place, eagerly awaiting our sensei. I was bouncing in my spot against the tree. Naruto seemed to be as happy for me as I was, though Sasuke stared at me with an annoyed glare the entire time, distaste rolling off him in spades - I didn't care.  
I had brought stuff with me to study, as was becoming habit, but I couldn't focus on any of it, not when I knew that Kakashi-sensei was coming with my summon.  
"Would you just sit still?" Sasuke hissed, narrowing his eyes at me.  
"I can't!" I whined. "I'm too excited!"  
"Go be excited somewhere else," he muttered. "You're getting on my nerves."  
"Don't be an ass. You'd be happy if you were her," Naruto said. "Not like it's a crime."  
The Uchiha rolled his eyes but realized he wasn't going to win this one. He lay back on the ground, arms crossed against his chest, the scowl on his face relaxing some.  
I was excited, but I couldn't help but be a bit nervous as well. I hadn't had a chance to read up on summons because there weren't any books in the library on it - none that I had access to at least. My knowledge on it was basic at best. What if the summon didn't want to sign with me? What if I didn't even have enough chakra to summon any of them? I wasn't expecting much out of today other than the actual signing of the contract, but still, the last thing I wanted to do was mess this up.  
This was something that I needed if I wanted to really start getting into effectively making poisons and using them. A summon who could get me the type of plants that didn't grow in Konoha would be a massive advantage. I had gone to the Yamanaka flower shop and they had a small selection of poisonous plants that they could supply me with, but the vast majority of plants grown in the village were for medicinal purposes only.  
Out of nowhere Kakashi-sensei poofed into existence in front of us, his eyes crinkling into what I could only assume was a smile. He had his hand propped up on his hip, and in the other one he was grasping what I could make out to be a scroll, rather old looking and torn.  
"Hello kiddies," he said. "Are we ready?"  
"Finally," Sasuke said and sat up, stretching his arm above his head, smug grin on his face. "These two idiots were beginning to drive me crazy."  
I ignored him, instead rushing over to our sensei and staring down at the scroll in awe. "You got it."  
"Yep."  
"And it's going to help me with poisons?"  
"Uh huh."  
"Oh, thank you!" I squealed and spring forward, taking the ninja by surprise with a hug. Amazingly he didn't try and shove me away. He stiffened, his arms staying rigidly by his sides. It was a second or two before he loosened up, though he didn't hug me back, he just sort of stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do.  
I released the poor man and he fidgeted awkwardly. "You're welcome. Now then, let's get down to business," he said, turning his attention to the boys. "I'm going to be busy with getting Kasumi started for the first half an hour or so, but after that I can come over and help you two out."  
"Sure, whatever," Sasuke said and wandered away, trying to put as much space between him and Naruto as he could.  
The blonde shrugged at the retreating back of the Uchiha boy. "Weirdo. Good luck Kasu!" Naruto said and he walked off as well, going to the opposite side of the training grounds.  
"Okay," Kakashi-sensei said. He plopped down in front of me, crossing his legs like a little kid, and set down the scroll between the two of us, rolling it out carefully. "How much do you know about summoning?"  
"Not a lot," I muttered with a cringe. "They didn't cover it in the Academy, and I don't have access to any books that really talk about it. I don't know anybody in the village I could have asked either."  
Sensei sighed. "It's not all that complicated. First, you need to sign the contract - the scroll - but you have to do it in your own blood, and place your fingerprints on the contract. After that you need to offer the summons an additional donation of blood on the hand that you signed it with, form the hand seals, add a bit of chakra, and then attempt a summon. During this whole process I'll be keeping a careful eye on your chakra levels. It takes a fair amount of chakra to complete your first summon, and it's best you don't kill yourself trying to do this. If at any point I think you're overextending yourself, I will interrupt the process."  
I blinked, doing my best to absorb the chunk of information tossed at me. "Uhh…"  
"Hand."  
Without thinking I held out my hand and Kakashi-sensei pulled out a senbon and pricked my index finger with it, a small amount of blood bubbling at the tip of my finger. He then turned it and placed it over the paper with an expectant look. Right. I had to sign my name.  
Carefully, I wrote out my name, my hand shaking. Just beside it I pressed my finger against the parchment and when I pulled my hand away there was a small fingerprint where it had been. Kakashi-sensei slid the contract off to the side, giving it a watchful look. I'm not sure what he was looking for be he seemed satisfied when he turned his gaze back at me. Was something supposed to happen? Did something happen and I just missed it?  
"Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram," he said. "Remember, it takes a significant amount of chakra, but don't go dumping all of your reserves into this. You're going to need to attempt this more than just once or twice today."  
I sat up on my knees, breathing deeply. I kept that in mind as I slipped my fingers through the signs, pushing a good chunk of chakra into the seals, and then pressing my bloodied hand against the ground.  
Nothing.  
"Try again," Kakashi-sensei urged. "Nobody gets it on their first try."  
I repeated the signs and pressed my hand down again, but nothing happened.  
"Again."  
This time, when I pressed my hand down, I felt a slight whoosh of chakra, and a tuft of soft orange fur appeared in front of me. I grinned. It wasn't much, but it was something.  
Kakashi-sensei watched on, his chin resting on his hand. To most, he probably looked relaxed, but I could see the stiffness in his shoulders, how tightly his fists were clenched beneath his chin. He was watching very, very carefully. He knew how much chakra it took to get through the first summon and he knew that I had tiny reserves, barely enough to qualify for a summon. "Not bad," sensei said. "More than I expected out of you for your first day."  
"Thanks," I breathed. I pinched the fur between my fingers and held it in front of my face. "It's better than I thought I'd do as well."  
He paused for a minute. "I think you're safe to try a few more times, then we better give it a rest for the day. We can try more tomorrow."  
None of my attempts came up with anything more significant than a few stray hairs. It was still more than I had expected. I knew at least that I was capable of doing this, I'd just need to work at it - there wasn't any real rush. We still hadn't gone on any missions, so I knew I still had some time before the infamous Land of Waves mission began.  
After I had rolled up the contract and stashed it in my bag I went over and sat with Naruto, keeping him company as he trained. The two boys, under the watchful eye of Kakashi-sensei, worked on the leaf trick. Sasuke seemed to be annoyed at the fact that for probably the first time ever Naruto was better than him at something. Both boys were doing well - so far, Sasuke had only let his leaf drop twice while Naruto had yet to drop his.  
I looked over to Kakashi-sensei and had to hide a grin at the glint of mischief in his eye. Since I knew Naruto could see me, I tried to seem like I was still paying attention to my book, but my attention was focused on our sensei. He was about to do something that I would greatly enjoy.  
The point of the leaf exercise was to test and improve a ninja's concentration and control of chakra. A ninja needed to be able to concentrate on their chakra and what they were doing in the midst of battle without losing sense of their surroundings. What better way to test that but by causing a bit of chaos on the background?  
Kakashi-sensei noticed my attention and sent a wink my way before he pulled a bucket of water balloons out of thin air and hurled them at Sasuke. To his credit, the Uchiha dodge the majority of them without dropping his leaf, though he was still soaked after the assault.  
Naruto howled with laughter, his leaf gracefully floating to the ground. Kakashi-sensei snickered, another bucket of balloons at the ready, something Naruto apparently didn't notice - he was too occupied with the deeply disgruntled Sasuke and how hilarious his hair looked when it was sopping wet.  
"Oh Naruto," I sung, turning to prevent my book from getting wet. "You might want to pay better attention."  
"Huh?" he asked, but it was too late.  
Kakashi-sensei popped up beside Naruto and flung balloons at the boy at a speed only a shinobi would be capable of. Naruto only dodged maybe one or two, the rest of them of them nailing him everywhere. He was completely covered in water. Even Sasuke cracked a grin.  
"At least I actually avoided some of them," Sasuke sneered. "You're drenched."  
"So are you," I pointed out.  
He scowled at me. "How come Kasumi didn't get balloons thrown at her?"  
"She doesn't need this kind of practice," Kakashi-sensei said. "I'm sure she'd be able to dodge anything I throw at her."  
I blushed at the compliment, keeping the book in front of my face. "I'm not sure about that."  
Sasuke scoffed. "I'd love to see her try."  
"Is that a challenge?"  
"I already know that you can't, but if it will make you try, then sure, it's a challenge."  
Turning down a challenge was never an option - my pride didn't allow it.  
Kakashi-sensei watched us with an amused twinkle in his eye. I closed up my book, careful to mark my spot, and then stretched my limbs; a few things popped into place and I sighed contently. I moved a little ways away from the boys and got into my usual taijutsu stance, much to the confusion of Sasuke and Naruto.  
"What is she doing?" Naruto whispered to Sasuke who frowned at him but shrugged.  
The first balloon whizzed by my head and I danced out of the way, swiveling to the side without picking up my feet.  
That was the only one that came on its own.  
The barrage of balloons was faster and larger than what Kakashi-sensei threw at the boys. Three or four were coming at me at any given time. I weaved and slid out of the way, twisting and rotating my body, each movement fluid and connecting with the next. No second could be wasted. A few glanced the sides of my arms, and I had to jump out of the way to avoid some of them, overextending my body, even losing my balance a few times, but I managed to come out of it without a single drop of water on me. It felt like an hour had passed when I finally straightened myself, though I guessed it was closer to maybe twenty seconds.  
The boys were both staring at me. "How did you do that?" Sasuke demanded, his eyes narrowed.  
"A little thing called practice," I offered.  
"You must have cheated," he said with a note of finality. "I couldn't dodge all of those balloons and I'm better at taijutsu than you, so there's no way you could have done that." He turned and looked to our sensei for confirmation but Kakashi-sensei merely shrugged.  
"Actually, she didn't cheat," Kakashi-sensei said. "Know your teammates strength, Sasuke. Knowing what they're capable of is just as important as knowing what you're capable of."  
He scowled at the scolding but it was something he needed to hear, whether he liked it or not. He couldn't underestimate Naruto and I. It was just as dangerous as underestimating his opponent.  
.-.-.  
Weeks passed like that. For the next month and a half, my entire world was focused on training and learning. I'd begun making my own poisons, getting a feel for the process and how to properly handle the ingredients, though that was the easy part. For all of them I'd had to create their antidotes. It was sort of a basic rule - you never made a poison without making it's antidote.  
Along with all the other improvements, one of the bigger ones had been Sasuke. The longer he was around us, the more he seemed to be able to stand us, though whether or not he enjoyed being around us was still up for debate. Naruto was taking a liking to him even if he would never admit it. What Kakashi said to Sasuke seemed to have stuck with him and he was actually making an effort to function with us as a team. It was a good start, even if the only reason he was doing it was to better himself.  
I made progress on the summoning, slowly but surely, eventually managing to get one of the actual animals to appear. It had been in the middle of practice while Naruto and Sasuke were learning some new taijutsu techniques to help them in close combat. My poor thumb was bitten up and torn from the amount of times I had used it for blood.  
I was surprised when the little fox appeared in front of me, and it looked just as surprised as I was.  
"Well look at what we have here," the little thing purred, inclining its furry head. It was a small fox and completely white with piercing blue eyes. "I suppose that you are my new master."  
A grin tugged at my lips. "That would be correct. I'm Kasumi. What's your name?"  
"I am known as Toshiko, master of poison." She raised her nose in the air and gave a few delicate little sniffs. What seemed to be a smile appeared on its face and I could hear a distinct sense of approval when she commented, "you smell of arnica and smoke."  
"Ah… yeah… failed attempt earlier," I said sheepishly and blushed. I'd mixed up two of the components of a liquid poison earlier and the result was nearly setting my workshop on fire.  
"At least you are trying, better than what I can say for some of my past masters," she said. "I'm assuming that's why you have chosen to contract us, for our expertise in poisons?"  
"Yes."  
"Then we will be working together frequently. As I said, I am the master of poison. There are two others whom you will be able to summon in time, but I will allow them to introduce themselves when they are ready."  
I nodded. Three. It was less than I had imagined, but that would be fine. A yawn escaped my mouth and I rubbed at my eyes. Actually summoning one of the foxes had taken a lot more chakra than just attempting to summon one of them had.  
"If you do not need anything right now then I will take my leave," she said.  
"Uh yeah, I don't have anything for you to do," I replied.  
The little fox inclined her head again and said, "Until we meet again." Then in a puff of smoke she was gone, leaving a small tuft of snow white hair as the only evidence she was there.  
I sat back and inhaled deeply, feeling like I'd just run a marathon.  
Footsteps softly padded behind me. "The first real summon is always the worst."  
I leant my head back and stared into the eye of Kakashi-sensei. He was crouched behind me, elbows resting on his knees, staring down at me kindly. "Really?"  
"Really."  
"So I'm not always going to use up like… half my reserves summoning?"  
"Probably not."  
"Probably not? Wow, that sounds oh so promising," I muttered.  
He reached down and ruffled my hair. "Cheer up, you still did it."  
"Yeah…" I trailed off, stifling another yawn.  
Naruto ran over, a wild smile on his face - he was practically vibrating. "That was so cool! It was actually like talking and everything!"  
"It was okay, I guess," Sasuke said nonchalantly, trying to keep his aloof and uncaring attitude alive, but the shift in his eyes and the fact that he actually walked all the way over here told me that he was interested.  
I ignored him and instead rolled my eyes with a laugh. "Of course it was talking. Haven't you seen a summon before?"  
"No," Naruto said and jut out his bottom lip in a pout.  
"Oh," I said. "I'll let you meet Toshiko next time, then."  
"Really?" he shouted. I nodded and he tackled me in a hug. "Yeah! Thanks Kasu!"  
A small 'oof' was pushed out of me as the little blonde lay on top of me. For such a little kid, he sure weighed a lot. I struggled, wiggling my arms and feebly trying to push him off.  
"Can't… breathe…" I managed.  
He hopped off, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry."  
"Alright kiddies, enough of that," Kakashi-sensei said. "Time to get back to work."  
I heaved a sigh and raised my arms expectantly. Naruto gripped my arm immediately and after a second of hesitation Sasuke grabbed the other and they helped me up, grunting with the effort. Sasuke nearly toppled over trying to lift me up.  
He looked at me wide-eyed, righting himself. "How much do you weigh?"  
I scoffed. "That's not the kind of question you ask a girl, idiot."  
"You weigh like a hundred fifty pounds!"  
"You're over exaggerating."  
"You are pretty heavy, Kasu," Naruto said. When he realized what he said he waved his hands in the air as a form of surrender, sputtering. "No I didn't mean like that! I mean… you're pretty… and like… you're not like…"  
"Wait…" Sasuke interrupted and reached over to grab my arm, looking at the weights. "How much do these weigh?"  
I looked at them as well, running my fingers over them. "I don't actually know."  
"What?"  
"Hey, it's not like I take them off to see," I defended. "I've never taken them off since I've gotten them, and I've been adding bits of chakra regularly since I got them."  
"How long have you had them?" Sasuke inquired.  
I clicked my tongue, thinking. "I got them when I was ten, so two years?"  
Sasuke opened his mouth to say something but Kakashi-sensei called us over, growing impatient at having to wait to restart training. I gave the boys a bit of a look before jogging over, not waiting for them to follow along behind me.  
.-.-.  
A week later, we had our first mission. Walking into the Hokage's office I was, for the first time in a long time, unsure about what was going to happen. They had a few small missions before the Land of Waves, but there wasn't much detail really put into them.  
All of the other Genins had been getting easy D-ranks. For some reason, we had held off longer than any of the other teams for going on missions, and if I remember correctly, we should have already gone on a few missions by now - but we hadn't. It has been training since we graduated. We had trained on all of the different formations and what to do in different mission-like scenarios but up until now we had no field experience, and the Chuunin exams were looming, which also pointed me in the direction of the Land of Waves Arc commencing.  
Naruto hadn't settled down since Kakashi-sensei had told us we were getting our first mission.  
Sasuke had taken the news much better, simply smirking a bit more than usual. Naruto however had been bouncing around and shouting and cheering.  
As the door opened I jammed my elbow into his ribs, a clear reminder for him to behave. We walked in and the Hokage stood, smiling down at us kindly. All four of us bowed respectfully and he sat back down, eyes wandering over us before finally settling on Kakashi-sensei.  
"Took you long enough," the Sandaime said jokingly and Kakashi-sensei's shoulders loosened a bit, the tension in his face easing.  
"What can I say, they're quiet the interesting bunch."  
"I do not doubt it," he replied. "But nonetheless you are here. I have one that you can take, a retrieval mission for a lost cat."  
"What?" Naruto exclaimed in outrage. "That's so boring!"  
"Naruto," I hissed, frowning at him. "Stop it."  
The Sandaime stroked his chin thoughtfully, emitting a sigh. "You have no experience, Naruto. I cannot send you on anything more advanced. All young ninja must take a few less desirable missions to gain experience, it's simply part of the job."  
"But we're good," he whined. "Plus we've been training hard for like… ages!"  
I couldn't help but watch the exchange in a slight amount of shock. I'd never in my entire shinobi life seen a single person address the Hokage in such a casual manner. Of course I knew that this was how Naruto interacted with him, but it was still jarring to see. Most of all I was surprised by how the Sandaime took it, looking at Naruto in a way a grandfather often would their grandson, not even the slightest bit surprised by the lack of respect.  
"What do you think Kakashi?" the Hokage asked.  
Kakashi-sensei took a moment before he said in a slow, measured voice, "We have been training in mission-like scenarios, and all three of them are definitely advanced for Genin."  
"Do you believe them to be capable of a C-rank?"  
"I think that they can handle an easy C-rank."  
The Sandaime simply nodded his head and reached into the drawers in front of him, flipping through some papers and folders, humming thoughtfully to himself. After a couple of minute he pulled one out and slid it across the table.  
"Here," the Sandaime said and pressed his index finger on the paper. "An easy escort mission. Estimated to be roughly two weeks in time. You are to escort a master bridge builder known as Tazuna to the Land of Waves and then return. The only possible enemies are lowly thugs but nothing that advanced Genins aren't capable of."  
"We will accept this mission," Kakashi-sensei said.  
The Hokage pulled out a massive stamp and slammed it down on the paper and handed it to Kakashi-sensei. "Good. The arrangements will be made, you will leave first thing tomorrow morning. You will assemble at the gates and your escort subject will be awaiting your arrival there."  
All of us bowed again and we were on our way out. Naruto was ecstatic and Sasuke seemed to be intrigued at least, but I was wary. I knew what was awaiting us, and it wasn't good.  
.-.-.  
"Are you ready sweetheart?" papa asked, grabbing my pack off the table and handing it to me, his arm dropping nearly to the ground at the weight of it. He blanched. "What's in here?"  
"The essentials," I said and grabbed it from him, swinging it easily over my shoulder. "We are going to be gone for about a couple of weeks, so I had to pack a accordingly."  
"Did you put the whole kitchen in there?"  
I smirked. "Nearly. I'm a growing girl, I need my nutrients."  
I walked over to the door and moved it aside, pressing my palm against the wood. Early on my parents had decided that I should have a secret stash for all of my more… dangerous items, just incase somebody broke into the house. We'd had a man come in and install what was the shinobi equivalent of a safe. To any passerby, it just looked like a wall - but I knew better. A few of the wood spots were not wood spots, but in fact pressure points that when pressed in the correct order would reveal what I called my special stash.  
The section of the wall slid away and revealed a little niche that held all of my more dangerous weapons and anything I didn't want people getting ahold of. A rack on the side held all of my notebooks that had any writing in English. Another held any and all poison-coated weapons. The last one held my most dangerous and favourite piece of equipment: my poison belt.  
Not long after I decided that I was going to get into poison mama and papa surprised me with yet another amazing gift. It was a large belt that came with three dozen mini pouches and mini vials, perfect for easy access during battle and easy transport of an obscene amount of poisons. Each vial held a single dose. So far it was barely full, only holding three different poisons with their corresponding antidotes scattered across the belt, labelled in English. The upside to labelling in English was that an enemy couldn't identify what held what - the bad side was that nobody on my side could either.  
I slipped the belt on and hung my kunai and senbon on my leg and arm straps, carefully securing everything so that I wouldn't accidentally cut myself during the trip.  
"Okay, I'm ready."  
"Be safe," mama said and gave me a tight hug. "I want my baby girl back in one piece."  
"Try not to get yourself killed," papa joked. "And make sure Naruto doesn't get himself killed. That boy is a walking accident."  
I laughed and nodded, my throat tightening up as I stepped back. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. In the show, they all got out alright, but I hadn't been apart of the show. Sure I knew what was supposed to happen, yet Sakura was supposed to be on Team 7 instead of me. There was always the chance that I wasn't going to come out on top or that the rest of the team wouldn't come out on top because of me.  
Forcefully I stopped that train of thought. Not now. I had to focus.  
"I'll come home soon, I promise!" I said and walked out the door into the cool morning air.  
It was still a bit dark out but by the time I got to the gates the sun was peeking out over the horizon, lazily making its way into the sky. Kakashi-sensei, amazingly, was the only one already there, perched atop the gates with his Makeout Tactics book in hand.  
"Ah, Kasumi," he said, not bothering to look at me. "Why am I not surprised."  
"You're not surprised but I sure am," I said. "I thought we were going to be waiting on you."  
"Normally, you'd be right," he said. "But I thought I'd make an exception for my little Genins very first mission."  
"Adorable."  
"Yes, you all are."  
I shook my head and settled down against one of the poles, pulling out the only book I had allowed myself to pack. It was small and amazingly not about herbs and poison. I had come across it one night in the library, sitting in a corner near the back of the library. It was a book I had had growing up - but not growing up in this world. It was a book I had had when I was growing up in my first life. It was a different author, with a different name, and somewhat altered characters and story, but in essence the same book.  
There was a version of Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel.  
I'd actually started crying when I first found it. The librarian had been surprised by my reaction and slightly unnerved, so she had said that I could keep it. It was hard to describe the way that reading it made me feel. Every time I picked it up images of mom and dad flashed through my head. My old life. All the things that I missed from that life that I could never have in this life.  
"Ah, look who else finally decided to show up," Kakashi-sensei remarked from his spot. I looked up to see Naruto and Sasuke making their way down the road, a large amount of space separating the two of them, hinting at how uncomfortable the two of them were when left alone together. They must have ended up running into each other by mistake.  
"Is that bridge guy not here yet?" Naruto asked.  
"No, and he probably won't be here for another half an hour, so I'd get comfortable if I were you," Kakashi-sensei said.  
Sasuke scoffed and went to the opposite pole from where I was sitting. Naruto sat down beside me and let his pack drop with a heavy thud. I glanced over. His pack actually seemed to be fairly well done. It wasn't too big, but I could see that it was set up properly and wasn't bulging despite the fact that it sounded to be pretty heavy.  
"Did you do that yourself?" I asked.  
Naruto looked at the pack and blushed a bit. "No. Iruka-sensei came over last night and helped me do it properly since I couldn't remember how."  
That explained it. "Oh."  
"Yeah," he said. "I think the old man asked him to, but he showed me how to do it so I won't have to get help next time."  
I nodded absently and went back to my book, scooting over so that I was leaning against Naruto - it was cold and that boy was like a heater, constantly warm enough for two or three people. He was used to this by now and he didn't move much at the contact except to put a bit more of his weight against the pole and set his head against the top of mine.  
We rested like this for over an hour before Tazuna finally stumbled into view.  
"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered.  
"What?" Naruto murmured, half asleep.  
"The guy's already drunk!"  
He shifted a bit, stretching his arms above his head, then looked up and watched the man slowly make his way towards us.  
Kakashi-sensei, for his part, seemed highly amused. He hopped down to stand in front of us, slipping his book into his back pocket as he took a few steps forward. "Hello," he said. "You must be Tazuna."  
"You're damn right I am," the man said. "Who the hell are you?"  
"I am Kakashi Hatake, the Jonin leader of the team escorting you."  
The man looked at us in utter disapproval. He was fat and wrinkled, like a raisin with a beer gut. His weird hat sat atop his head and I could see strands of greasy grey hair peeking through.  
"This is the team of people escorting me? This is a bunch of kids!" the man shouted.  
"Hey!" Naruto shouted back indignantly. "We're shinobi!"  
"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me correct myself: this is a bunch of obnoxious brats!"  
Despite the situation, I couldn't hold in a laugh. Really it wasn't funny. I should be offended, but I just didn't have it in me.  
"What's the little bitch laughing at?" he slurred.  
I laughed a bit harder. Think up a reason. "You," I managed through giggles. "I was expecting some kind of… I don't know… impressive man, but you're just a fat old drunk!"  
The man cried out in outrage. "Listen here - "  
"That's enough of that," Kakashi-sensei said, putting himself between the man and myself. He pointed at the old man. "Please respect these kids because they're the ones who are going to be protecting your life this entire trip, whether or not you have deemed them capable of it." He looked back at me this time. "And you… please don't insult the client."  
I snickered but nodded, pushing myself up and brushing off the dirt and dust from my pants.  
The boys fell into step beside me, Naruto eyeing up the man warily as Kakashi-sensei talked to him for a couple of minutes. None of us said anything as we waited. Sasuke seemed to be pissed off about our client just the same as Naruto.  
After a couple of minutes Kakashi-sensei wandered back over to us and adjusted his earpiece before handing each of us one. "Keep this safe, you'll be needing them for future missions. In most Genin cases I wouldn't call it a necessity but due to Kasumi's well… everything, we ought to be wearing them on any mission."  
All of us nodded and placed them in our ears.  
His reasoning for that was because of, like he said, two major parts of my fighting style: poison and my kekkei genkai.  
Whenever a lethal substance was going to be put in the air, it was customary for teammates to call what was known as a "Flying Eagle" code. It was the code to clear the battle field of all friendly targets to avoid getting them caught in a crossfire of a technique that would otherwise harm them. If at any point I was going to use airborne poison that could affect them, I had to call it in the radios. Whether or not they chose to obey it was up to them but once I called it I had to follow through.  
Kakashi-sensei had also warned me to use it before activating my technique to avoid having any of them hit me by accident.  
We all did a final check to ensure that everything was in order before we set off, making our way out on our first mission.  
.-.-.  
The first two days of travel were dull. We walked across almost completely flat land and only passed one village throughout the entire trek. I was on high alert for the entire trip. I knew that stuff was supposed to happen, and I knew what order they were going to happen in, but I had no idea when they were going to happen.  
I was doing my best to hide it, but Kakashi-sensei and Naruto had both picked up on the fact that something was bothering me. Neither said anything about it or tried to really make sense of the way that I was feeling. It was on the third day, once we were near halfway to the destination, that we encountered our first real enemies.  
Along the way we had a couple of thugs that were barely worth fighting - second year academy students could probably take them down without much problem. As we walked on that third day I begun to recognize the landscape. The trees, the path, and eventually, the puddle.  
I formed a simple hand sign with my left hand, letting it swing out in front of me just enough to catch attention without arousing suspicion. To anybody else who saw it, the simple action didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary, just somebody swinging their hands a little while they walked. To any shinobi from the Konoha, however, it was the commencing signal for the incognito codes.  
In a situation where you are meant to be blending in, typical hand codes like what you'd use in battle were far too obvious. So instead of the battle codes in a situation where there was a possibility of alerting the enemy, you would use what was known as incognito codes. They were simple gestures that to any other eye would come off as nothing but common actions. Konoha shinobi knew better.  
Kakashi-sensei coughed into his elbow, twice, showing recognition. Naruto and Sasuke both instead just stood up a bit straighter, trying to maintain their pace while the adrenaline began to pump in their veins.  
Kakashi-sensei tapped his hand against his thigh. How many enemies?  
I almost froze. How many were there? I couldn't remember from the show so I let out a slow breath and stretched out my chakra senses to the puddle. I could barely sense two distinct chakra sources from within the puddle. I scratched my right forearm twice. Two.  
He scuffed his feet. Hostile?  
I pressed my palm flat against my thigh. Affirmative.  
As we neared the puddle I let my hand rest against my thigh and used my fingers to count down until the attack. Blood was roaring in my ears. Three fingers, two fingers, one finger. As my hand closed into a fist the two Chuunin burst out from their hiding spot and sprung into action, tossing kunai at us as they soared through the air.  
They were easy to avoid and within seconds Naruto and Sasuke had them subdued. Kakashi-sensei looked over at Tazuna and for the first time the entire mission, he was entirely serious.  
"Why were there shinobi waiting for you?" Kakashi-sensei asked.  
The man moved his head back and went rigid. "I don't know!"  
"You're lying," I said flatly. One of the first things we had learnt during kunoichi classes was how to spot a liar and was Tazuna ever making that easy. Even if I didn't already know he was lying I would have been able to pick out the lie easily.  
"What? How dare you accuse me of that!"  
"You're a terrible liar," I said.  
"I'd appreciate it if you were honest with us," Kakashi-sensei said, though his voice made it very clear that he was going to get the truth one way or another. "Those shinobi were disguised and waiting for you. Tell me, why?"  
"I told you, I don't know!" he insisted. He was sweating and clenching his fists.  
"Liar," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "I don't know why you're trying to lie to shinobi of all people."  
Kakashi-sensei gave me a look that clearly said 'shut up'. I shrugged but went quiet, allowing Kakashi-sensei to eventually break Tazuna down and get him to spill his guts on the entire situation, explaining about how he wanted to build a bridge to help with the economy and all of that - I tuned it out entirely. I knew it all.  
When the story as over, Kakashi-sensei sighed and rubbed his face. "Well, now it looks like we got a B-rank mission on our hands, kids. I'm changing the objective as well to escorting and protecting Tazuna while he builds the bridge."  
"That's it?" Tazuna asked in surprise.  
"Something tells me that my team won't want to be backing out, and so far they've been doing well so there's no reason to quit."  
Naruto nodded, his opinion having changed over the course of the story. "Yeah! We'll help you get that bridge built no problem!"  
"Might as well," Sasuke said in his usual cold tone. "We've come this far."  
I simply nodded, not having any words to answer - I was too busy worrying about what was to come. These two were absolutely nothing compared to what awaited us. To be honest, I wasn't sure if we were ready, but we weren't going to have much choice.  
We'd gotten into this, and we were going to hang on until the end.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER EIGHT  
.-.-.  
The cool breeze wrapped around me in a jacket that sent chills coursing up my spine, goosebumps lining my arms and legs. My gaze bounced between the trees and bushes - I couldn't settle down.  
After encountering the Demon Brothers we had an uneventful walk. We didn't go too much further and as soon as night fell we decided to set camp and wait it out. Setting up camp didn't take too long as we'd practiced it back in the Academy enough times that all three of us could do it in our sleep. Naruto and Sasuke had wasted no time in getting to sleep. Both of them were soundly snoring off closer to the treeline, curled up in their beds.  
Kakashi-sensei offered to take the first shift so that I could get a bit of rest. He was sitting off in the corner, eye trained on his book, but I knew better than to actually believe that he wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings. I rested my head back against the makeshift pillow I had and let my gaze get lost in the mess of stars. The window of time that I had to sleep was short, and I should be taking advantage of it, but my body was still thrumming with nerves.  
I knew what we were walking into.  
There was no point in worrying over it, considering it was inevitable, yet I still felt my stomach twist into knots at the thought of meeting up with Zabuza. Supposedly things would end okay. Nobody would be hurt too badly. Nobody would be killed - nobody was supposed to be killed. All I could do was try my best to keep it that way.  
"You know, it helps to close your eyes when you're trying to sleep," Kakashi-sensei said. His voice was lowered, probably to try and keep from waking anybody up.  
"Thanks for the tip," I replied, turning my head to look at him.  
"Stop worrying," he said. The words were short, but his tone was not unkind. "It's a waste of energy."  
"Again, thanks for the tip."  
I heard him sigh but he left it alone.  
I did my best to try and fall asleep on my own but eventually I gave up. We only were sleeping while the sun was down and already I had wasted an hour of that time. I reached back and grabbed my pack, rifling through the front pocket until I pulled out a small vial that had a clear liquid sloshing around inside of it.  
Typically, it was frowned upon to take sleeping medication on a mission. It left you in a vulnerable state should somebody attack you during the night. If I hadn't made this myself, I wouldn't have taken it, but I had been careful in making this. There was enough to last me a few nights in the vial so I took a small sip and hurried to get the cap back on, slipping it back into its place in my pack before crawling back into my bag.  
The medicine worked fast.  
Two minutes later my sight grew blurry, and after three minutes I had slipped away, falling into a night of fitful rest.  
.-.-.  
It felt like barely a minute before Naruto was shaking me awake. His face was blurry. I lifted my hands to my eyes and cursed when they came away wet - I had been crying. I rubbed away at my eyes and sat up, inhaling deeply. My throat hurt.  
Naruto looked worried, his eyebrows knit together in concern. It occurred to me then that he'd probably never seen me cry before. I gave an uneasy laugh and scooted a bit further into my sleeping bag, trying to hide my shaking hands. I could still hear the echoes of the nightmare flashing in my head, the same nightmare I'd been having my entire life here.  
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Why're you crying?"  
I took a bit of a look around now that I was awake and able to see clearly. It was just barely dark out, meaning that the sun would be up soon enough, and we'd be on the move again. I stretched my arms above my head. "It's nothing, really. Why don't you get a bit more sleep before we go, I can take a turn on watch for an hour or so."  
He shook his head. "I'm not tired."  
"Well, neither am I," I said.  
Instead of trying to get some more sleep I crawled off of my sleeping pad and grabbed my bag, pulling out the little book the librarian had given me - I could use a bit of comfort right now.  
My eyes fell to the others scattered around the camp. Kakashi-sensei had fallen asleep against another tree on the other side of our little camp, his chest slowly rising and falling. Tazuna had curled up against his pack, using his hat to cover his eyes. Sasuke was a little to my left, his face scrunched up in his sleep, hands clamped tightly on his blanket - I knew that look.  
I looked over and saw that the little blonde was still watching me. He held my gaze for a second before looking down at his shoes. He wouldn't try and ask again, he knew me better than that.  
Quietly I shuffled over, planting my butt down beside him on the massive oak tree he was leaning against. He didn't say anything but he rested his head down on my shoulder and I moved my book a bit so that he could read it with me. He was a much slower reader than I was so I made sure to wait a little bit extra before I turned the page.  
Naruto was quiet for maybe twenty minutes before he finally spoke up again. "I get nightmares too, sometimes. If you don't want to talk about it that's okay," he added on hurriedly as he felt me stiffen up beside him. "But just… you know… if you want to talk about it or something…"  
My knuckles went white at how tightly I was gripping the sides of my book. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk about it to him, it was that I couldn't talk to him about it.  
Nightmares were a rare occurrence for me nowadays. The only time they happened were when I was extremely stressed or scared, both of which I was last night when I fell asleep. I always dreaded having them. They happened much more frequently when I was younger, though. For a while, poor mama and papa had to come in and console me on a nightly basis because I was sobbing so hard from nightmares they didn't understand. Each time though it was always about the same thing: revisiting the night that I died those twelve years ago.  
In this life, I had a significantly better memory, past the point of being natural. I didn't know why or how and I probably never would, so I had just begun to accept that. Something about that night twelve years ago, though, stuck out in my head with an odd clarity that I couldn't place. I could still hear the sounds of the tires screeching against the pavement, muffled by the music I was listening to. I could still feel the headphones being torn from my ears as the truck smashed into me, tossing me across the road like I weighed nothing. That memory would never go away. It was imprinted in my mind.  
How could I ever forget dying?  
It was an weird thing, having to know that you died, that your heart stopped beating. There were times that I still found it difficult to wrap my mind around it and actually comprehend it.  
Out of habit I raised a hand to my chest, letting it rest over my heart for a few seconds, letting the steady rhythm calm me down a bit. "I can't talk about it," I finally said.  
That was all I had to say. "Alright," he replied and let his chin fall back on my shoulder, going back to reading the book.  
My death grip on the pages relaxed slightly and I let out a breath, willing my muscles to relax. Naruto moved a little closer, letting his shoulder press up against mine and unzipped his jacket, slipping it behind my shoulders so that the both of us were cuddled in it like a blanket, protected against the bite of the cold morning air. I pulled my legs into my chest and smiled. "Thanks."  
He flushed a little but said a small, "'Course."  
We sat like that, reading, until the sun rose and we had to start getting up to help break camp.  
.-.-.  
"I want this one!"  
"You got the last one," Sasuke scoffed, his fingers hovering over his kunai. "It's my turn."  
"No fair! You got two in a row before!" Naruto whined. He looked over to Kakashi-sensei who looked like he didn't want to get involved in their stupid little rivalry.  
The three thugs stood in the middle of the road, clearly confused. Apparently they'd never had people argue over who would be kicking their ass. One of them was scratching his head. They all three were big buff, burly men, two wielding massive swords while the other hefted a battle axe almost the same size as me.  
Tazuna looked like he was going to start yelling soon.  
"Fuck this," one of them said and made to move towards Tazuna. The others looked ready to follow his lead.  
I rolled my eyes and pushed past both of the boys, moving to stand in front of Tazuna. "It's my turn," I said.  
The three man all burst out laughing.  
"A little girl?" the one in the middle scoffed. "What are you going to do, glitter us to death?"  
I cracked my knuckles and neck, grinning at them. I hadn't had much of a chance to fight yet during the trip since Naruto or Sasuke tended to jump in before I could get the chance - I was itching for a good brawl. "Why don't you come find out?"  
They two flanking guys looked to the one in the middle. The middle guy gave a sharp nod and the two raised their swords above their heads, uttering what they probably believed were fierce battle cries. I snorted and stood, waiting for them to approach.  
Compared to the average shinobi, the two thugs were painfully slow. In the time it took them to raise their weapons and swing I was well out of the way, kunai at the ready, its surface glinting in the sunlight. The two of them looked over at me in shock. I took the chance to make a move.  
Surging forward I slashed at the thighs of the guy closest to me, flipping back out of the way of the others sword. I heard two thuds. One was the guys sword slamming into the ground, the other was the thug I had attacked falling to next to it.  
"What the… I can't move my legs!" he cried, his voice rising in panic.  
I smirked a little, dropping the bloodied kunai to the ground. Good to know that they worked. "I'd hope not," I said. "There was enough poison on there to take down a horse."  
The downed thugs friend looked over at me. "You… you little bitch! I'll kill you!"  
"Not so fast," I sang and flicked on my technique, easily ducking under the axe that was swung in my direction, pivoting in place so I was standing behind him. He looked around and I could see the bearded guy's face tightening as he seemed to realize how out of his league he was. Anticipation filled me as I pulled up my new mask, my other hand moving to my belt.  
I unscrewed the cap of the vial, quickly tipping its contents into my palm. Since he was a civilian and had essentially no chakra I didn't bother dropping my bloodlimit when I tapped him on the shoulder. He spun around, sword raised above his head again, incredibly confused to find himself staring at air. Gently I blew on the powder to send it flying into his face, hopping out of the way and letting the technique fall mid-air. My feet touched back down on the ground just as the thug's eyes rolled back into his head and he crumpled.  
The guy with the beard was now looking incredibly unsure of himself. He had let his arms fall to his side and he already had one foot poised behind him in case he needed to make a run for it.  
"What's wrong?" I asked, my voice muffled slightly by the fabric. "You don't want to play anymore?"  
Before he could react I sprinted forward, pushing chakra into my arms and legs and clocked him in the jaw, sending him flying back like a ragdoll into a tree. He fell to the ground, knocked out cold. I shook out my hand, feeling satisfied. There was something about a good ol' fashioned punch that always put a smile on my face.  
Tazuna took a step forward but I held out a hand to stop him. "Not yet, I need to make sure the air's clear," I said.  
I walked back over to where the thug lay on the ground. Quickly I reached out and tapped into the chakra I'd infused the poison with when I'd made it and gathered it all together, pulling the vial out with my free hand and popping the cap off so I could transfer the powder into it. Once the cap was back on I pulled down the mask and nodded at the others.  
The cries of the last conscious thug caught my attention. I moved in that direction, kneeling down to where he was lying and staring him dead in the eye. "Who sent you?"  
"I-I'll never tell!"  
I quirked an eyebrow and pulled out a kunai, pressing it against his neck. This one had no poison on it so I let it break small parts of his skin, just enough to freak him out without injuring him too badly. "That's not that I want to hear."  
This time he didn't try and lie, his eyes crossing as he tried to stare down at the blade. "Gato!" he cried. "Gato sent us. Don't kill me, please!"  
"Come now I'm just a little girl," I said. I moved the kunai away and slipped it back in my weapon belt. I turned to walk away before I swiveled back around and slammed my fist into his face, easily knocking him out as well. I strode over to where the others were, the adrenaline draining from my system with each step.  
Tazuna was staring at me in shock, his eyes going from the three downed thugs to me. I picked up the other kunai I had discarded, wiping the blood off on the ground before I put it back in its place in my kunai holder.  
"Don't worry," I said, answering the question he didn't want to ask. "They aren't dead."  
"What did you do to them?" he asked, looking like he almost didn't want to know the answer.  
I grinned impishly and motioned to my belt. "I like poison." I pointed to the first thug. "That one won't be moving his legs for at least ten hours… super concentrated foxglove, works wonders when put directly into the bloodstream. The other one is just common oleander, he'll be out for a while too, but I'm not totally sure how long."  
"You don't know?"  
I scoffed. "I haven't been doing this all that long, and I had to be careful not to give either of them lethal doses of the poisons. That combined with the fact that all bodies process toxins differently it can be difficult to really predict how effective something is going to be - poison making isn't that exact of a science."  
I didn't bother watching his reaction, instead moving back to the boys and checking my belt to make sure everything was secured properly.  
"That was slow," Sasuke commented.  
"Like you could have done any better," I snorted.  
"Yeah," Naruto said and stuck his tongue out at Sasuke.  
Kakashi-sensei grabbed the boys by their neck collars and pushed them forward, jerking his head in the direction at me. "Let's get moving, we don't have time to waste bickering kiddies."  
I followed, taking up my position in front of Tazuna and continued on, keeping my eyes trained on the road ahead.  
.-.-.  
A few days more of travel had us entering the land of waves. The closer we got, the more thugs we encountered, each one getting stronger. Near the end of the trek we found ourselves fighting a few shinobi, even. The further we went the more nervous I became. There hadn't been this many shinobi in the show, not that I could remember at least.  
The entire time Kakashi-sensei left us to deal with the enemies, watching us carefully, giving us pointers and critiques after we finished. He was using the new development in the mission as a learning opportunity - the best experience we could get was true combat experience.  
We were walking along when Naruto suddenly charged forward and tossed a kunai into the bush. I froze, immediately recognizing what this meant.  
"You idiot, what are you doing?" Sasuke said.  
"I sensed something!" Naruto defended.  
"Careful Naruto, those are sharp you know," Kakashi-sensei said sarcastically.  
Naruto's head perked up again and he flung another one into a bush in the opposite direction. "There's somebody here, I know it!"  
I walked over to the second bush and found the rabbit shaking, the kunai sticking out from the tree a few centimeters above its stark white head. Mutely I took a step back and looked towards Kakashi-sensei who came over to see what I was looking at.  
"It's albino," I said, letting the implication of the words sink in. He worked out what I was getting at in seconds and he slipped his hands into his pocket, casually scoping the area, not saying anything to either of the boys.  
Pointedly, I did my best not to stare into the trees where I knew The Demon of the Hidden Mist was hiding out, perched on a branch, waiting to strike. I let my hand rest above my holster, high enough that it didn't look suspicious but close enough that it brought me some amount of comfort. I ran through the basics of what I knew was going to happen in my head, keeping my ears open for the call from Kakashi-sensei. It wouldn't be long now.  
Naruto and Sasuke were bickering off to the side, ignorant to the new development.  
Less than a minute passed of tense silence before I heard Kakashi-sensei say, "Get down!"  
The sword flew through the air, whistling over my head as I let myself drop into a crouch, my hands resting on the ground between my knees. The sword implanted itself in a tree and Zabuza hopped out from the leaves of a tree, eyes glinting with malice as he stared down at us.  
All at once, I felt overwhelmed. Killing Intent washed over me, thick and heavy, clogging my throat and making my limbs feel like they're made of jelly - for a second I thought my knees would buckle out from underneath me entirely. The only other time I'd ever felt something this strong and hateful was nearly twelve years ago during the invasion of the Kyuubi. I looked over at Naruto and Sasuke, both of whom were shaking. For the first time in a long time, Sasuke didn't wear a mask of aloofness. When I looked into those eyes I didn't see a cold emptiness, I saw a scared little boy who was facing a threat he had no hope of combating.  
Kakashi-sensei stuck his hands back into his pockets and leaned his shoulders back, staring up at Zabuza. "Well, well. If it isn't Zabuza Momochi, rogue ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist."  
I saw Naruto go to take a step forward but I took a fist full of his jacket and yanked him back a bit, turning to give him a severe look. He looked back at me wide-eyed.  
"What?" he asked.  
"Don't get involved. This is too far out of our league," I said, keeping my voice low. "All you'll do is get in the way."  
"She's right. Stay back, this is between the two of us," Kakashi-sensei said and moved his hand to lift his hitae-ate, unveiling the Sharingan. "I'm going to need this, it seems."  
"Ah, Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye," Zabuza rumbled, his voice deep and rough like gravel. "Is that right? I hate to tell you, but you'll have to hand over that old man."  
Kakashi-sensei sighed and moved his chin in our direction, talking to us without taking his eyes off of Zabuza. "Quick, get into formation - protect the bridge builder. Don't come into the fight - you'll only get yourself and myself killed. Use what I taught you."  
The three of us scrambled into formation, Naruto and Sasuke flanking Tazuna on either side while I stood in front of him, hands at the ready, balancing on the balls of my feet.  
Zabuza chuckled. "Looks like I get to see the Sharingan in action, eh?"  
"The hell is a Sharingan," Naruto muttered.  
Sasuke went to answer but I interrupted him with a sharp, "Later."  
For the first time Zabuza really took a look at me and I saw his eyes widen slightly. "If I didn't know better, I'd say I was looking at a little Kurosawa. Tell me girl, do my eyes deceive me?"  
I froze. I had no recollection of the name Kurosawa in the show, not even a single mention. He was talking about a family. Being from the Kiri himself, the chances that he knew my clan were astronomically high, if they were as big of a clan as I thought they might be.  
"I had heard that a Kurosawa brat had been taken to Village Hidden in the Leaves, but I never thought I'd actually get to meet them myself," he said.  
"Your fight is with me," Kakashi-sensei cut in. "I'm the one here who's going to kill you, not them."  
Zabuza laughed and rumbled, "True enough. No more talking, then, let's get down to business. I need that bridge builder dead and if you don't want to end up the same, you best be leaving."  
"No can do," Kakashi-sensei replied.  
"What a shame. If I have to take you out first, so be it." With that Zabuza disappeared, blinking out of existence.  
"He's over there, on the water!" Naruto exclaimed.  
I didn't have to look to know he was there. The amount of chakra he was working together assaulted my senses. Here it comes.  
"Hidden Mist Jutsu," Zabuza said.  
A thick mist cloaked the air, churning and heavy. The amount of chakra was incredible. I lifted my hand in front of my face but I could barely see it there, if only because I actually knew that it was there.  
"He vanished," Naruto murmured.  
Kakashi-sensei stepped forward, putting himself between us and Zabuza. "He'll come after me first."  
"Who is he?" Sasuke asked.  
"Zabuza Momochi, the ex-head of the assassination unit in The Hidden Mist, master of the silent killing technique. It happens in an instant, no sound or warning of any sort. You'd never even know it happened. Don't dare lower your guard, not even for a second."  
I laughed a little, stealing his next line of, "Well if we fail, we only lose our lives."  
A few seconds passed and all around us the mist grew thicker and thicker.  
"It's getting more difficult to see," Naruto said.  
"This is the Land of the Waves is surrounded by oceans. The swirling mists are ever present," Tazuna answered grimly. This was the most serious I had ever seen him.  
Soon Kakashi-sensei was no longer visible even though he was a mere seven or eight feet in front of us. I steeled myself for the appearance of Zabuza, hands locked in a defensive position in front of me, poison-tipped kunai grasped firmly in my hands. This kunai had only a lethal dose. There was no playing around this time.  
"Eight points that I can hit to kill you instantly. Which one should I choose?"  
The bloodlust in the air intensified. I snuck a glance over at the boys and Sasuke was pale as a ghost, an almost impossible to notice shake in his arms. Naruto seemed to be in shock. It was almost like he had yet to really comprehend how strong of an enemy we were now facing. Now, not only was Zabuza oozing Killing Intent, but Kakashi-sensei was as well - the effect of it was bone chilling. Two incredibly strong shinobi facing off in a fight to the death.  
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sasuke grasping the kunai in both hands, the blade of it aimed downwards, his hands trembling.  
"Sasuke," Kakashi-sensei said. "Calm down. I'll protect you three with my life, trust me. I won't allow any of you to die, not if I can help it."  
It was an odd combination. He was still radiating Killing Intent like I'd never felt before but his words to us also held an opposite effect, reassuring and calming.  
"How sure of that are you?" Zabuza said as he materialized in the middle of our formation. Without a hesitation I sprung away, yanking Tazuna out of the way with me as I went.  
In a split second Kakashi-sensei was there, kunai stuck into Zabuza's abdomen, the wound dripping not blood, but water. The clone fell apart and Zabuza swung his sword, seemingly slicing Kakashi-sensei clean in two, but that too turned into a puddle as soon as the sword touched it. Kakashi-sensei had managed to copy the jutsu in a time to perform it himself seamlessly. Watching that in person was impressive. The amount of pure skill it took was difficult for me to comprehend.  
The real Kakashi-sensei appeared behind Zabuza, kunai poised against the shinobi's neck.  
"Don't move," he said. "It's over."  
"All right!" Naruto cheered. He was grinning from ear to ear, staring starry-eyed at our sensei.  
Sasuke seemed to relax at the supposed defeat of Zabuza, his shoulders slumping slightly and the shake in his hands smoothing out.  
"Don't let your guard down," I warned. Both of them stared at me in confusion but I heard the slow laugh from Zabuza and Kakashi-sensei stiffened, his grip on the kunai tightening.  
"Nothing's over yet," Zabuza said. "That imitation was nothing but a pathetic attempt. A copy. I'll admit, you managed to surprise me. You did well, hiding in the mist, waiting for me. Nice try. I'm not that much of an idiot, though."  
The clone fell away and the real Zabuza stuck out with his sword. Kakashi-sensei flew out of the way, landing off to the side. Zabuza spun around and struck out at him, throwing him backwards several yards back into the water. I clenched my teeth. I knew what was coming.  
Zabuza dived into the water after him, surfacing at the same time as Kakashi-sensei and forming the hand seals I was dreading. "Water Prison Jutsu!"  
Kakashi-sensei had enough time to recognize the technique before it enveloped him in a sphere of water, leaving him entirely immobile.  
"The prison may be made of water, but it's stronger than steel. Good luck fighting in this." He turned to look over at us. "Though I should take out your little friends before I worry about finishing you off."  
With one hand still holding the prison together Zabuza used the other to create a water clone, one that we were all alone in fighting. Naruto gave a small gasp, his eyes wider than saucers. I closed my eyes, inhaling deeply, and hardened my resolve. We had to work together. With this mist jutsu, I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to use my own technique without severe interference. I'd have to rely entirely on my taijutsu and poisons.  
"You three call yourselves ninja? You don't deserve the title. Show me, how tough are you really?" All I had time to see was a mere flash of something before Naruto was thrown back, his hitae-ate on the ground, Zabuza's foot stomping on it. "You three are nothing more than little brats."  
I could sense the agitation rolling off of Kakashi-sensei from here. "Get the bridge builder and run! You cannot win this fight, don't let yourselves get killed! He's using his power to keep me in this prison, but if you run he won't be able to hold his clone. Go, get out of here," our sensei urged.  
"That's not an option," Sasuke said coolly.  
"We can't run fast enough to escape him," I said.  
Sasuke was the first to spring into action as he leaped into the air, tossing a barrage of kunai as he charged head first at Zabuza. The man easily caught Sasuke by the neck and tossed him aside with ease.  
"Don't be an idiot about this," I scolded, refusing to take my eyes off the enemy. "If we're going to fight this far above our league and even hope to stay alive, we have to work together."  
I could see Naruto fighting with himself to stay or leave. For the first time since he revealed himself, I let myself look away from Zabuza, locking gazes with Naruto. I didn't have to say it to get my message across.  
We were going to do this as a team, or we literally weren't going to do it at all.  
"Ah, little girl," Zabuza said. "Just like your father, a natural born leader."  
I did my best not to react, but I could see that he had the interest of all the boys. I knew that there was a good chance he was going to lie through his teeth - he was a shinobi, after all. It was possible he had no idea who my parents were and he was just making it up to get to me.  
"Akio Kurosawa, am I correct?" he taunted. "I know you remember him. I know more about your clan then you probably ever will."  
My throat tightened and I watched Zabuza in abject horror. How did he know?  
"The infamous Kurosawa memory at work. You can remember everything, I know you can. I bet you even remember your mothers screams that night as your father ran away with you in a hopeless attempt to escape. They made an example out of you, your mother, and your father, the stupid hero that he was."  
Oh, God. I'd done my best to toss the earlier memories of my life as far away from my thoughts as I could. They were too painful. Especially memories from that night. Now, in the midst of the most dangerous battle I had ever been in, they were rushing back, clouding my head.  
"Don't listen to him Kasumi!" Kakashi-sensei shouted. "You're better than this! You've been given orders, do as you're told and complete the mission!"  
He was right, but oh was it hard. I set my jaw. I ignored the tears stinging in my eyes and cleared my head of anything that wasn't pertaining to this battle right here and right now. I wasn't ready to die again, not yet.  
I sure as hell wasn't going to run either.  
Naruto looked back at Tazuna. "Bridge builder?"  
"Do what you must," he replied, nodding at us.  
"Hear that?" Sasuke said. "What option do we have?"  
"I hope you two are both ready to fight," Naruto said, his eyes full of determination.  
The sinister laugh from Zabuza brought our attention forward. "Still trying to play ninja. By the time I was your age I'd already killed hundreds of people with these hands. What have you done?"  
"Hundreds?" Naruto echoed.  
"Zabuza, Demon of the Mist," Kakashi-sensei said.  
"So I'm in your bingo book it seems," Zabuza said.  
Kakashi-sensei launched into the story of how Zabuza earned the name and the old graduation exam of Kiri. I tuned it out, focusing instead on what I had to do and how exactly I was going to do it.  
The mask Zabuza wore would prevent any poisons from being inhaled. We needed to get rid of the water clone so that Kakashi-sensei would be back in action. I remembered the plan from the show, but I was going to let Naruto come to it himself. In the show, Sakura was entirely useless, standing around doing nothing. I couldn't do that. If they were going to fight, I would too.  
I zoned back in just in time to avoid the sword aiming directly at my head. I barely flipped out of the way in time to keep from being decapitated, taken off guard by the attack. A few hairs floated through the air having been sliced by the blade.  
"Now isn't the time to be zoning out," Sasuke said.  
"Yeah." I placed a hand to my ear and made sure my earpiece was still in place. "Looks like I'm going to have to pull out the big guns."  
The two boys looked at me in confusion and I formed a simple hand seal to release the weight in my arms and legs. For the first time in two years, I was going entirely on my true muscle and power.  
"No way…"  
It was jarring. The chakra that was in the weights flew into the air and faded away and I was shocked by the sheer amount of chakra I had stored into them over time. I took a step forward and it felt like I was walking on air. "I'll distract him," I said. "You two idiots think up a plan before I get killed."  
I didn't give them a chance to reply, instead zipping forward and placing myself in front of Zabuza. I almost went too far, underestimating the strength in my legs. He raised an eyebrow, seemingly unimpressed. "You really think that's going to help you?"  
I shook out my limbs a bit and smiled at him. "Yep. Let's play."  
He let his sword fall from his shoulder and it hit the ground, leaving a small crater. He swung it and I hopped up, landing on the blade and flipping over his head before the blade had the chance to hit the ground again. I swept at his legs but he jumped out of the way, whipping around and swinging his sword again. I backhand-springed out of the way gracefully, placing my hands on my hips. "Can't you do any better than that?"  
"Oh, you are just like your father," he growled. "Arrogant little thing you are."  
Only as arrogant as I need to be to distract him from the boys. He cracked his neck and charged, faster than before, but not quite fast enough for me. I spun out of the way, fiercely kicking at his back. It threw him off balance for a second, long enough for me to get a little bit more space between us. He swung is blade horizontally and I ducked under it, rolling between his legs to get behind him. He used the momentum of him turning to face me to slash wildly at me. I barely managed to jump out of the way. Amazingly, he managed to catch my leg before I was able to get entirely out of the way and he crushed my ankle with his fist, tossing me across the clearing and into a tree with ease.  
I knew the second he grabbed my ankle that it was broken. I hit the ground and let out a cry, the pain sharp as a knife.  
"Is that it? One little throw and you're finished?" Zabuza said. "Shameful."  
"Kasumi!" Naruto cried.  
"I'm fine," I called back, waving him off as best as I could.  
It hurt, badly. I took in a sharp breath through my teeth and went into the back of my poison belt, removing a small vial I had hoped I wouldn't have to ever use. I was desperate, but I could tell from the looks on their faces that they weren't ready yet. They still hadn't thought of it. There was no way I could tell them without giving it away to Zabuza and ruining the plan entirely.  
I looked at the little vial filled to the brim with a milky white liquid before I yanked off the cap and took it down in one gulp, cringing as it burned down my throat. Instantly the pain from my ankle eased and I forced myself to stand, trying not to put any weight on my left leg. It may not hurt but it was still broken. I sent chakra into the entire region, hoping to reduce the damage as much as possible - my job wasn't done yet.  
This little concoction could buy me five minutes, six max, but then the pain would be back full force, probably worse considering I was about to try and fight on a broken ankle.  
I raise a single hand to my ear and said softly, "Code Flying Eagle, ETA three seconds." Kakashi-sensei looked sharply over at me as did both of the boys. I counted down mentally in my head, flicking on the technique as soon as I hit three. "I'll buy you idiots as much time as I can, but you better hurry. I don't know how long I can hold him off."  
I sped forward and went to slash at him with a kunai when he caught me out of the air, holding me by the neck as he had done to Sasuke earlier. The second he touched me I felt my chakra being zapped away at blinding speed and I didn't hesitate in releasing it, barely keeping myself in the safe zone.  
"I know how that technique works brat. You really must know nothing about your clan if you think that'd work on me," he sneered.  
The kunai fell from my hand and clattered to the ground. Somehow he'd seen through the technique in a matter of seconds, almost like it wasn't even there. "Got me… there," I managed.  
He tightened his grip. "Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you right here and now."  
"Because I won't let you!" Naruto shouted and even though I couldn't turn to look at him, I could imagine his hands forming the hand signs. Then I heard the call. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"  
Just like that a hoard of little blonde boys popped into existence and swarmed on Zabuza. I used my good leg to slam my ankle into his most sensitive area, causing him to release his grip on my neck. I curled in my legs and pushed off of his chest like a spring board, sending myself flying across the clearing, tumbling to the ground in a tired heap.  
I pushed myself back using my arms, getting as far away from the action as I could.  
Easily Zabuza cleared away every single clone - or so he thought. One of the clones skidding across the ground yanked off his backpack and pulled out the shuriken, tossing it over to the Uchiha just in time for it to poof away.  
Sasuke caught the shuriken with ease and looked at it, then looked at the last remaining clone before the plan seemed to dawn on him and he held it in front of him. "Demon Wind Shuriken: Wind Mill of Shadows."  
"A shuriken? You can't hit me with that," Zabuza scoffed.  
Sasuke didn't say anything, watching as the shuriken flew past the clone and sped towards Zabuza who didn't seem fazed.  
The man jumped over it, looking ready to launch into another speech when the shuriken split into three separate Naruto clones, each one throwing a kunai in his direction. With a grunt he hesitated before releasing the jutsu on Kakashi-sensei and moving away from the kunai. Zabuza caught the shuriken and turned, eyes set on Naruto, intent on sending it towards him, when a single fist froze the weapon in its place.  
Naruto fell into the water with a splash just as Kakashi-sensei emerged from the prison, eyes blazing. I'd never seen Kakashi-sensei this mad before. After all the time I had spent with him in training it was easy to forget that he was an ex-ANBU captain and in many of the rival villages bingo books. His Chidori technique was listed as an S-rank one hit kill technique.  
"Excellent plan, Naruto. Not so crazy about your part, Kasumi, but I suppose it had to be done," Kakashi-sensei said.  
Naruto shot up a thumbs up before he hurried out of the way, swimming through the water in my direction.  
The two elite shinobi faced off, not moving. Naruto moved to come over to me but I shook my head and pointed at Tazuna. He frowned, looking torn, but he listened and stood next to Sasuke, each holding up an arm to protect the bridge builder.  
"So, what's it going to be?" Kakashi-sensei asked.  
Zabuza didn't say anything, instead increasing the pressure on the shuriken. Kakashi-sensei struggled against the force, his arm shaking, blood seeping from the wound. Then with a sudden surge of strength he forced the shuriken away, sending it spinning out into the water.  
The two shinobi jumped off from the water and Zabuza's hands flew through the hand signs for Water Dragon Jutsu, Kakashi-sensei mimicking the signs with blinding speed. The jutsus burst out of the water and danced around each other, twisting and spinning, striking at each other in a battle to the death - a battle of wills.  
The water surged over the shores and I held onto the nearest tree as it washed over me, almost covering my entire body. I watched the battle play out, trying to ignore the pain in my ankle as it slowly came back to me, the sting much worse than it had been when Zabuza initially broke it.  
The fountains cleared and the two shinobi struggled atop the water, Zabuza's sword poised against the plates on Kakashi-sensei's gloves.  
I couldn't hear as well from all the way back there, but I could make out the two shinobi circling each other. Kakashi-sensei was now going past mimicking Zabuza and fully predicting his moves. He summoned the swirling vortex to overwhelming Zabuza, sending water barreling and splashing past the banks, racing in our direction at a frightening speed. Out of nowhere Naruto appeared, scooping me up and bringing me to a safe spot up in the trees as the water pounded against the ground. I looked over and saw that he'd done the same with Tazuna.  
From where we were situated, I could barely make out the rest of the encounter.  
I saw Zabuza pinned up against the tree, kunai sticking out of his arms and legs, his eyes wide as Haku tossed the senbon into his neck. I saw Haku and Kakashi-sensei exchange a few words before Haku put Zabuza's limp body over his shoulder and took off.  
"How're you doing?" Naruto asked nervously. His eyes fell to my ankle and he paled. "It's… it's not supposed to be twisting that way…"  
"Yeah, it's broken pretty bad. At least it's the only thing that's broken," I said.  
Not to mention I was feeling the effects of chakra exhaustion, but it wasn't bad enough to cause any immediate threat to my health. I was much more worried about my ankle. I didn't know much about mending broken bones except that I had nowhere near the medical ninjutsu skills to attempt it. The best I could do was try and set it in hopes that it heals correctly. That was going to hurt.  
I watched Kakashi-sensei walk over to where Tazuna and Sasuke were standing with the before promptly collapsing from chakra exhaustion due to overuse of the Sharingan.  
"Take me down there," I said. Naruto picked me up bridal style and hopped down from the tree, hurrying over to where Kakashi-sensei now lay on the ground. Sasuke was on his knees, staring at our sensei uncertainly, eyes flying everywhere. It occurred to me then that I was the only one here who had even a small amount of medical knowledge past the bare basics we had learnt in the Academy.  
Naruto set me down, leaving one arm around my shoulder to help support me. Sasuke stood and turned to me, giving me an appraising look, his eyebrows knitting together when he got a good look at my ankle. He frowned. "How bad are you hurt?"  
"I'll live," I said, brushing off the concern. Besides some bruising and a lot of soreness I had no injuries besides my ankle. "Can you help me sit down?"  
Naruto nodded and carefully helped me get down so that I was sitting on my butt. It was a bit of a struggle considering I almost had no chakra left but I managed to get a small blanket of glowing green around my hand. I moved it up and down over our sensei's body, scanning for injuries. Besides a severe lack of chakra in his coils - nothing surprising - there didn't seem to be anything but minor lacerations on the skin that I could heal easily once I had a chance to rest.  
"Everything's intact," I announced, holding my arm up for Naruto to grab and help me back up. He grabbed it and hauled me back to my feet, smirking.  
"You're a lot lighter without those heavy weights," he joked, but his voice was weak, the way he said it sounding off to me.  
I giggled, something I didn't do often, choosing to ignore it for now. I was beyond relieved that everything had gone the way they were supposed to, even if I didn't necessarily end up on top. I would talk to Naruto later. "Yeah, it feels weird not having them pulling me back."  
"Naruto, summon some clones to help carry Kakashi-sensei back to the house," Sasuke said, leaning down and starting to move his body off the ground.  
Naruto moved his arm from around my shoulder and I leaned against him for support. Two clones popped into existence and took our sensei from Sasuke, one under each arm, holding the weight of the man easily. The Uchiha let the clones take him and came over, taking my other arm and wrapping it around his shoulder.  
"Let's go," he said, nodding at Tazuna to lead us forward.  
In most cases, you didn't let the escortee walk in the front, but we'd make an exception. Our little group hobbled behind Tazuna like this for almost an hour before we reached Tazuna's house. The trip was thankfully uneventful, mostly flat ground with a few small hills that one of the boys had to carry me up. It was a slow walk but we made it there. The closer we got to his house the more people seemed to recognize Tazuna, turning and waving, though most of them took pause when they saw that he wasn't alone, and that we weren't in the best of shape.  
We didn't stop once along the way. Not yet.  
When the house came into view I felt my nerves begin to settle down, the butterflies in my stomach easing. Tazuna seemed to be relieved as well, the scowl on his face smoothing out into something that resembled a smile.  
The doors opened and a young woman, Tsunami, came running out, throwing herself at Tazuna.  
The man laughed and caught her, pulling her into a hug. "Hello there, Tsunami."  
She pulled back and smiled at him. "It's good to see you're alright," she said. Her eyes fell on us and her expression was clouded with worry, the joy of seeing her father forgotten. "What happened?"  
"A lot," I said. "We can explain later… after we're inside. I'd appreciate having somewhere to sit."  
"Of course," she said.  
We made our way up the hill and Tsunami led us into the main room where Naruto and Sasuke carefully set me down on one of the couches. Naruto's clones lay Kakashi-sensei across the other, larger one, both of them poofing out of existence as soon as he hit the couch. I let my head fall back against the soft fabric and my eyes began falling closed, my body fighting me to sleep.  
I was more than ready for a nap, but I had something to do first.  
The boys sat down opposite of me and I looked at Sasuke, dreading what had to happen. "Do you remember when we learnt how to set bones in the Academy?"  
I already knew Naruto would have forgotten, but I had a bit more faith in Sasuke.  
"Yeah, I can do it," he said. He looked about as excited as I was at the idea of getting my ankle into the right position so that it would heal properly. "What can we use?"  
"Tazuna!" I called. The man came into the room with a disgruntled expression.  
"What is it?"  
"Do you have anything we could use to set my ankle?"  
"Yeah, just give me a couple minutes," he said and disappeared from the room, returning a minute later with two pieces of wood in his hands. "These are the best I got." He set the wood down on the table and handed me a rag, setting it on my hands, giving me a meaningful look. "You're gonna need that."  
"Thanks," I said, holding it tightly in my hand. This was going to suck.  
Sasuke picked up the wood and moved the table out of the way so that he could get a better angle at my ankle. Gingerly he moved it off the couch and set it on the ground, putting the pieces of wood off to the side for the time being. He looked up at me.  
"Are you ready?"  
"No."  
I steeled myself and put the cloth in my mouth, closing my eyes and clamping my hands down on the edge of the couch cushion.  
"One, two - "  
He didn't wait until three, twisting my ankle into its proper position in one jerk. The pain was blinding, worse than anything I had ever felt in my entire life. I bit down on the cloth harshly and curled my hands against the fabric, my grip strong enough that pieces of the couch tore off. Tears sprung to my eyes.  
I was glad I didn't pass out.  
Sasuke placed the wood on either side of my ankle and grabbed at the other cloth Tazuna had left behind, wrapping it around the planks to secure them in their position. A slew of curses and colourful words poured out of my mouth.  
"That looks like it's right," Sasuke said, stepping back and plopping down on the couch opposite of me again.  
I waited for the pain to subside a bit before I looked down - he was right. My toes were pointing in the right direction and the bone structure was properly aligned, though it was still a bad break and I'd be out of commission for the rest of the mission. Mending bones was nasty business that required precision and focus, not something to be done by those without proper training. I had no intention of even attempting it. The odds were too good I'd permanently fuck up my ankle in some shape or form.  
"Yeah, it'll do for now," I breathed. "Thanks."  
He nodded brusquely and stood again. "I'm going to go check on Kakashi-sensei."  
"Okay."  
I let him go even though I already knew Kakashi-sensei wouldn't be awake for a while. With the amount of chakra the Sharingan takes up, and how much he had used it, he wouldn't be coming around for at least a couple of days at the soonest. I had some things that might help him recover but there was nothing that would make a big difference besides a chakra transfer which I wasn't even close to being capable of doing.  
Tiredly I scrubbed at my face. I needed something to dull this pain so I could get some sleep.  
Naruto stared at me from his spot. Ever since our encounter with Zabuza he'd been silent, staring off into space. I had expected him to be ecstatic. His plan had worked, he'd been the one to save the day and keep all of his friends safe. So why wasn't he?  
"What is it?" I asked him. His eyes fell to my ankle and then focused on my neck. Oh.  
"Nothing," he replied cheerily, flashing a grin and a thumbs up. I frowned.  
I knew him better than to believe that. I'd seen that expression, heard that tone, all too many times before. Something was wrong and it was bugging him - a lot.  
"Stop that."  
"What?"  
"Faking being happy," I said. "There's something bothering you, don't try and hide it from me. What's wrong?"  
The grin faded and he seemed to deflate, the light draining from his eyes. He shifted a bit in his seat. "I keep thinking about earlier," he said, refusing to meet my gaze. "He… he could have killed you, Kasu."  
"Come here."  
"What?"  
I held out my arms. "Come here," I repeated. "Don't make me say it again, or I'll have to try and go over there and I really don't think I can do that right now."  
He didn't make me ask again. He sat down beside me and immediately I snaked my arms around his upper body. The boy did the same and lay his forehead against my shoulder, gripping me more tightly than I'd like but I didn't have the heart to tell him that it hurt. For a full minute he sat there, holding onto me for dear life, and I pretended not to notice the fact that his shoulders shook.  
He pulled away, rubbing at his eyes furiously.  
"I'm okay."  
"You could have died, Kasu… and it… it…"  
He didn't finish, but he didn't need to, because I could connect the dots. It would have been my fault.  
"No," I said. "Don't do that, don't go blaming yourself."  
"But - "  
"If I died, that would have been Zabuza's fault," I said. "Not yours, not even for a second."  
"You were relying on me," he said.  
"I was relying on you and on Sasuke," I corrected. "But that doesn't make it your fault or Sasuke's fault or Kakashi-sensei's fault that I'm hurt, or anything else. That would have been my fault and Zabuza's fault. Okay?"  
"Okay," he said quietly.  
"I'm not going anywhere," I promised.  
He nodded, though I think for the first time it was beginning to dawn on him just how dangerous this job was. Shinobi didn't have long life expectancies. Everyday hundreds of shinobi across the world died on the job. It was only a matter of time before somebody we knew became a part of that statistic.  
I grabbed some pillows and propped them under my leg. I pushed on Naruto gently until he scooted back so I had enough room to lie down, using his stomach as a pillow for my head since the rest of them were occupied by my ankle.  
"I need a nap," I announced. "You should take one too."  
"I'm not tired."  
"Liar." A yawn escaped my lips and I placed a hand over my mouth to muffle it. "You're stuck until I wake up, you might as well get some sleep while you're here."  
It was easier than I had thought it was going to be to fall asleep. My eyes fell closed and consciousness faded away, leaving me fast asleep, completely dead to the world.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER NINE  
.-.-.  
I woke up crying, the afterimage of my mother's face flashing across my vision and the strangled screams echoing in my ears.  
My chest was heaving. My hands were shaking. A momentary dose of panic fed the racing in my heart when I didn't recognize where I was - I had fallen asleep on a couch and now I was waking up in some strange bed.  
It took a few good, long breaths before my heart was beating at a normal pace. I lifted a hand to my cheek and it came away damp, teardrops glistening in the moonlight on my fingertips.  
"Bad dreams?" a voice asked.  
I started, jolting my ankle and sending a flare of pain coursing up my leg. Yeah, that hurt. I sputtered a curse, squeezing my eyes shut, fingers digging into my thigh. I hissed out a breath through my teeth before forcing out a simple, "Something like that."  
Kakashi-sensei watched me out of the corner of his eye. "Bad memories?"  
My head snapped over to him, taken off guard by the guess. Where the hell had that come from? "What's it to you?"  
"The infamous Kurosawa memory," he mused, quoting Zabuza from before.  
I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head, not ready for this conversation; I'd barely been awake for two minutes and I was still trying to recover from the aftermath of that nightmare. My eyes fell on the book sitting lazily in his lap. "Rotting your brain?"  
"Rotting isn't exactly the word I'd use," he replied, smoothly accepting the change in topic for now.  
"Then tell me wise sensei," I said sarcastically. "What do you call it?"  
"Broadening my horizons," he said.  
"Because that's exactly what you need more of," I commented with a roll of my eyes.  
"You're just too young to properly appreciate good literature."  
I made a gagging sound in the back of my throat. "Yuck."  
"Ah, youth," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "So innocent and adorable."  
A disgusted frown twisted my face. "Whatever." I turned my attention to the window, the moon sitting high in the sky. How long had I been out? When I had fallen asleep it hadn't even been too late into the evening and now it looked like it was the dead of the night, longer than I had meant to sleep. "Wait, how are you even awake right now?"  
"Huh?"  
"I read about chakra exhaustion in my books, and it's only been like… six or seven hours since we got here, no way should you be awake yet," I said. "You should have been out for a few days, at least."  
He looked over at me carefully. "Six or seven hours? Hate to break it to you, kid, but you were out for almost as long as I was. We've been here for two days or so."  
Oh. Well, that explains how I managed to recover so much chakra. But two days? I had been pretty tired after the fight, understandably, but I hadn't thought I was that tired.  
I looked down and saw that I had been changed into different clothes, a light blue t-shirt and some tattered old grey sweatpants that looked like they belonged to a little kid. Some of the bruising on my body had begun to purple and lighten up at the edges though some of the nastier ones from being tossed across the clearing looked to be pretty inflamed still. Cautiously I reached up and laid a gentle hand on the sore part of my shoulder, wincing at the tenderness. Those would need some attention later.  
I glanced down at my ankle and found that I wasn't overjoyed with what I saw. The entire area surrounding the break was severely swollen and bruised - the only okay thing about it was that we'd managed to set it soon enough that the bones had stayed properly aligned. The pain had gone down a bit, now only a dull ache that could be drowned out with some pain meds.  
"Nasty break you got there," he said with a nod at my propped up ankle.  
"Tell me about it," I mumbled. "It's gonna take weeks to heal."  
"The medic nin back in the village can probably lessen that, but it means you won't be getting any help until we're back in the village. I doubt there's any medic nin in the area and if there are they probably aren't skilled enough to mend bones."  
"I figured as much."  
"You're lucky that you didn't come off with anything worse, though."  
"Yeah, well…" I trailed off, adjusting myself into a more comfortable sitting position and activating my medical chakra, slowly letting my hand hover over any small injuries I had left over.  
"Medical ninjutsu?" Kakashi-sensei asked in surprise. "How did you learn to do that?"  
"I read a book," I said lamely.  
"I didn't know Genin had access to any books that talked about more than the theory of medical ninjutsu."  
"They don't."  
"Then how… oh, nevermind," he said.  
It still fascinated me to watch injuries be healed. There was something about it that I would probably never get over having come from a world where this was entirely impossible. My hand rested atop one of the uglier bruises marring my leg. It was an ugly mix of purple and black, a splotch on my skin bigger than my entire hand - I could practically see the outline of the tree branch I had smacked into even after two days of healing. This one took longer than the others but eventually it faded away until it was as if it had never existed.  
Aside from the bruise on my shoulder that I couldn't seem to reach completely the way I was sitting right now, I was good as new, though I had used up a considerable amount of chakra.  
"You missed one," Kakashi-sensei said without looking up from his book. He'd gone back to reading his smut book while I was cleaning myself up.  
I searched my skin but found nothing remaining. "What, where?"  
He reached over to the nightstand beside the bed and fished out a small mirror, tossing it to me. I deftly caught it out of the air and held it up in front of me, scanning my face. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary until I tilted it down a bit, getting a good look at my neck - at least what was visible of it though the massive cloud of purple and black. Shakily I traced the outline of it with my finger, the shape of it unmistakable as a hand.  
How had I not noticed it?  
"Like I said before, you're lucky that you didn't come off worse," Kakashi-sensei said. "If he had really wanted to, Zabuza could have broken your neck in two as easily as he broke your ankle, and you wouldn't have been able to stop him. You might not get so lucky next time."  
"It doesn't even hurt," I said numbly.  
That must have been what Naruto had been staring at before.  
The marks bobbed and shifted as I breathed in and out; it was going to take a lot of chakra to heal it to the point of being entirely gone. It went deep under the skin, I could tell that much from the colouring and general darkness of it.  
Staring at it in the mirror was surreal. I knew that I had come close during that fight but I had some amount of faith that I could set the plan in motion if Naruto couldn't himself. At least, I hoped so.  
"Which brings on the question of how you ended up with that bruise."  
"If you weren't paying attention when the big brute had me by the neck - "  
"It's not so much that he got you there but more about how you ended up there. My question is how he knew where to grab."  
"Your guess is as good as mine," I said. "I have zero knowledge on really any of that."  
"We'll have to do a bit more testing. If there's a way to see through that technique then we need to try and figure it out… that could come in handy in the future."  
I didn't say anything, instead letting the chakra light up my hand as I channeled it into my neck, willing away the mark - it sucked up the chakra like a sponge without showing any change in appearance. Only when I started getting dangerously low did I finally stop, staring distastefully at the still brilliantly purple mark in the mirror. Purple was better than black at least.  
"Fuck, I need coffee," I muttered and pushed off all my blankets.  
Kakashi-sensei quirked an eyebrow. "Twelve year olds shouldn't be saying the word 'fuck' or be drinking coffee."  
"Sue me."  
If I could see under his mask, I'd guess that he was frowning. "What are you doing?"  
"Getting coffee, obviously."  
"How do you plan on doing that with a broken ankle?"  
"I'll manage, don't you worry."  
"If you fall I'm not going to come help you."  
I threw him a nasty look. Shakily I got onto one foot and braced myself against the wall. My right leg protested to the use after not moving for over two days and I started to wonder if I actually could get out of this room without hurting myself worse than I already was.  
The floor was cold beneath my feet, like ice, sending shivers and goosebumps shooting up my spine, my knee shaking. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea afterall. In my peripheral I could see Kakashi-sensei watching me like a hawk. I paused for a second - how was I going to do this? My bed was tucked in a corner with the door a few feet away from the end of it, leaving me without a wall to use as a crutch.  
Guess I was going to have to wing it.  
I hopped one step, then another, groping at whatever area of the bed I could reach. So far so good.  
"Oh for the love of… wait a second," Kakashi-sensei sighed.  
I heard his book snapping shut and his blankets being thrown away, then the soft padding of his steps behind me. Then suddenly my feet were no longer touching the ground. A strangled sound escaped my mouth at the feeling of being lifted up and hefted over his shoulder. I didn't try and fight it, instead letting myself flop against his back.  
"What happened to not helping me?"  
"I said that I wouldn't help you if you fell," he said. "I never said anything about not helping you before you fell."  
It was a short trip through the house into the kitchen. The house was cosy without being cluttered, a comfortable two story home that seemed to be fairly new. We followed the noises of pans and pots clanking together to choose our path through the halls. When Kakashi-sensei pushed the door open everybody in the room turned to us, a worried buzz vibrating in the air.  
This probably looked pretty bad.  
I reached up a hand to wave and called out, "I'm alright… sensei decided to help me get to the kitchen so I wouldn't accidentally get myself killed for a cup of coffee."  
Kakashi-sensei plopped me down in the nearest chair and then turned around and left, probably returning to the room like the anti-social hermit he was.  
"Where's he going?" Tsunami asked.  
"He has important pervert business to attend to," I replied, snickering as the older woman flushed and pointedly went back to whatever she was doing. I glanced around, frowning at the absence of a certain blond haired ball of energy. "Where's Naruto?"  
"Out cold," Sasuke answered in his usual bored-sounding drawl. "The idiot spent the entire day waiting for you to wake up."  
Warmth blossomed in my chest. Of course he had. "Why am I not surprised?" I murmured fondly.  
"Two days girl," Tazuna commented. He looked tired but otherwise alright, no worse for wear. "What had you out so long? Even your sensei wasn't out that long."  
"I'm not really sure. We had the same problem of chakra exhaustion, but my body had more injuries to try and sort out while I slept I guess," I answered. "Chakra exhaustion is a serious problem that can be difficult for a body to recover from. No two shinobi handle it the same."  
I reached out and took a nibble of food that lay sitting out, my stomach gurgling in response to having food in it for the first time in nearly three days. I wasn't totally sure what the food was. Cuisine was varied depending on the country, so food here in the Water Country tended to be different from what I would eat in the Fire Country. All I really knew was that it tasted good and my stomach was accepting it.  
"That guy said you wanted coffee?" Tazuna inquired from his spot leaning against the counter. "What's a little girl like you doing drinking coffee, especially after just waking up?"  
Ah, coffee. When I came to this world I'd been surprised to discover that it did actually exist, no matter how uncommon and damn near impossible it could be to find. Most people thought of coffee as something only rugged thugs drank, typically preferring tea over coffee any day. Mama and papa were shocked when I began asking for them to buy it. It was incredibly expensive due to how few people supplied it so I had to consciously try and limit myself to how much I had.  
My favourite thing, by far, was the reaction I got when I asked for coffee anywhere, the looks of disbelief, especially when I asked for it without any cream of sugar.  
"I like it, why do you care?"  
"You've still only just woken up, what do you need that much caffeine for?"  
"Chakra headache," I said. "I find that it helps. I used up a good chunk of chakra healing myself a little bit ago and a cup of coffee would really help dull that right now."  
"Heal yourself?"  
"Ninja stuff," I settled on, not in the mood to get into anything deep and technical. "I can heal minor cuts and bruises right now, but a some of the most elite medic nin can practically bring people back from the dead."  
"Looks like you didn't finish the job," he said, eyes lingering on my neck.  
"Minor," I stressed the word. "Do either of those look minor to you?" I gestured down to my ankle and then back up to my neck.  
"We don't have any coffee, I apologize," Tsunami said, stepping in before the conversation could get too nasty. "Would you like some tea instead?"  
I crossed my arms on the table and let my head fall down onto them with a groan. "Sure, a cup of the strongest stuff you have please."  
"Right little caffeine addict you are," Tazuna muttered.  
"Can it old man, my head hurts."  
"You've been awake for, what, ten minutes? And you're already a menace?"  
I glared at him but bit my tongue against any comments - technically he was still our escort, and I couldn't go insulting him too badly.  
"She's worse when you have to train with her first thing in the morning," Sasuke added with a snarky smirk, much to my surprise and annoyance.  
"Oh like you're some kind of angel, Mr. Emo Asshole."  
He went to say something when Naruto walked into the kitchen, scratching his head sleepily, eyes still closed, uttering a non-committal whine. It was obvious that he had just woken up and hadn't totally joined the conscious world yet. "What are you guys doing shouting so late?"  
"Hi," I said, smiling for the first time since I woke up.  
He blinked at me, taking a second to understand before his face broke out into his all too familiar grin. He charged forward and hugged me, nearly knocking me off my chair - that boy had a wicked grip. I grabbed at the edge of the table to avoid hitting the ground.  
"Whoa!"  
"Sorry," he said sheepishly, letting go and settling himself down in the nearest seat.  
Tsunami came over and put a steaming cup of tea in front of me.  
I turned and smiled at her, giving a simple, "Thank you."  
Instinctively I curled my fingers around the cup and took in a deep breath of the rising steam, exhaling with a soft sigh; the drink smelt sweeter than I thought it was going to, even without anything added to it, and oddly familiar. I took a small sip.  
Ginger and peach.  
Just like mom used to make for me.  
"Is this tea okay? We have others if you'd like," Tsunami said worriedly.  
"No, this is alright," I murmured. "It just… reminded me of something, that's all. It's actually one of my favourites."  
"Oh. Alright," she said and went back to whatever she was doing.  
I nudged Naruto with my elbow. "You should go back to sleep." I cast a look at Sasuke. "You too."  
"But I just woke up," Naruto whined, giving me his best puppy dog eyes.  
"Nice try," I said. "But those haven't worked on me in years."  
"Awh c'mon!"  
"Sasuke told me you were up for days waiting for me to wake up. I'm awake, now it's your turn to get some sleep," I said.  
He grumbled the whole way out of the kitchen, making sure to direct a sad face at me every couple of steps, but he did go upstairs again, and I could hear him snoring almost as soon as he closed his door. I looked over at Sasuke and he snorted.  
"I'll go to sleep when I want to," he said.  
Naruto I could tell what to do but Sasuke needed a somewhat different approach.  
"I don't really care what you do," I laughed. "I was just saying that you should sleep, considering it looks like it's the middle of the night and Kakashi-sensei is probably going to have you guys back at training tomorrow. I don't think you want to be doing training on no sleep."  
Sasuke pondered that for a second before he unfolded his hands and pushed his chair back from the table without a word, walking off to wherever he was sleeping in the house. I smirked smugly to myself, leaning back in my chair and taking another sip of my tea, the liquid warming me up from the inside out.  
"That was impressive."  
"I'm well versed in the art of getting those idiots to do what I want."  
The conversation dropped there. A few minutes later Tazuna excused himself to go to sleep and Tsunami followed not long after, leaving me sitting alone in the kitchen, pondering more thoughts than I had in awhile.  
.-.-.  
Sometime during the morning Tazuna left and brought back two sets of crutches: one for me, the other for Kakashi-sensei. Having crutches granted me some amount of freedom again. Not long after the sun rose Kakashi-sensei roused both of the boys from their sleep - their screams as ice poured down their backs could be heard all the way down the hill from the house - and had them out in the forest training.  
I sat comfortably leaning against a tree and watched with no small amount of amusement as two sopping we boys trudged out of the house. Kakashi-sensei followed them out looking pleased with himself.  
Naruto sat down beside me and I moved away to avoid the water dripping off of him.  
"Looks like you two had a fun morning," I said with a snicker.  
"Shut up," Sasuke said.  
"Somebody's cranky," I sang.  
He gave me a death glare and I smiled serenely at him.  
"That's enough," Kakashi-sensei said, hobbling up to the group. "We don't have much time so keep quiet so that I won't have to repeat myself."  
He launched into his whole spiel about chakra and learning to control it. I closed my eyes for a couple of minutes, letting the words wash over me. This was all old new to me. I had been reading books and any type of knowledge to better my understanding of chakra since they day I entered the academy. Due to having small chakra reserves I had a much easier time containing and then controlling my chakra in a way that somebody like Naruto would take years to do.  
My control over chakra was something I had been working on for years.  
"What's the point of this?" Sasuke asked.  
"Today you're learning how to climb a tree… without using your hands."  
"Oh no…" Naruto muttered, looking down and I burst out laughing, thinking back a few months ago when Naruto asked me to try and show him how to climb trees. Those had been some of the most entertaining hours of my life.  
"This is gonna be good," I said.  
Kakashi-sensei raised an eyebrow at us. "I know that you can already do it," he said, pointing at me. "But what about you?"  
"Kasu tried to teach me how to do it already," he pouted. "It's stupid. I don't want to try and learn it again."  
"You didn't do that bad, especially considering it was your first try," I said.  
"I nearly broke my neck!" he cried.  
"Nearly, but you didn't, and that makes all of the difference."  
"You won't break your neck, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said. "Just put the chakra into your feet. Remember, the key to it is balancing the right amounts of chakra."  
To demonstrate he walked over to, and then straight up, one of the trees, stopping to rest upside down on the nearest branch. Naruto and Sasuke wasted no time in trying to replicate it. Naruto actually managed more than he had in the show, getting three or four steps up before he slid all the way back down to the ground with a thud. Sasuke did get decently high but had torn the trunk of the tree on his way up.  
"If you want to be Hokage one day, Naruto, you should be able to climb a tree," Kakashi-sensei said from atop his throne. "And Sasuke: a member of the great Uchiha clan should be able to climb a tree, no problem."  
I snorted. After half an hour of the running and crashing both boys were covered in dirt and scratches, panting for breath. Every spare second they would watch each other, gauging their progress. I could feel the tension in the air. The first time I had introduced Naruto to the idea I had just told him what to do without really giving him any idea how, mostly because he needed to have this moment. He needed to be in this situation where he couldn't do it himself and where he really got to see that Sasuke was, at least in this respect, stronger than him. He had to be forced into asking for help.  
Kakashi-sensei walked back down about an hour after he walked up, probably starting to get tired. He ambled over and sat down near me.  
"So," he began. "If I ask you about what Zabuza said, am I going to get an answer?"  
I tensed, my fists clenching in my lap. I had to answer eventually - what was the point in prolonging it? "You might."  
"What he was saying, about… the screams of your mother," Kakashi-sensei said. "What did he mean by that?"  
"Diving right in, I see," I said and gave a short and bitter laugh. "He meant exactly what he said."  
"According to the file, you were brought in when you were only two weeks old and your mother had died before you arrived at the village."  
"That's correct. And I swear to Kami if you ask me how I remember that I will punch you in your eye," I added when he started saying something else. "I don't know how I just can. I always have."  
He thought his question through before asking it. "How much of your life can you remember?"  
The ceasing of feet thumping on wood told me that both of the boys were now listening to the conversation as well. I kept my eyes skyward, unable to look my sensei in the eye.  
"Everything. Some things are fuzzier than others. Like… two years ago on the fifth of March, I can't tell you what I ate for breakfast," I said. "But I can tell you about the first time I ever opened my eyes, and the song that my mother sang to me when I was crying. I remember that day in the orphanage that my mama and papa walked in and decided that I was the one that they wanted to take home."  
All of them were listening with rapt attention. I could feel my throat thickening with emotion, the images of my mother and father invading my mind. It almost felt like I was back there on that night.  
"How come you never mentioned it to the Hokage?"  
"Are you kidding? The only reason they let me into the village was because they thought I would be too young to remember anything, I know that. Plus, I never knew it was a clan thing. I just assumed I had some kind of freakish memory."  
"You were too scared to, you mean," Kakashi-sensei said.  
"Do you blame me?"  
"I suppose not," he said.  
"Kasumi!" Naruto shouted, deciding that this was the perfect time to make his entrance into the conversation. "How come you never told me?"  
I shrugged halfheartedly. "I just never knew how to bring it up and it isn't exactly like… important."  
"It's so cool!"  
"Is it really?"  
"Huh?"  
"I remember everything, the good and the bad," I said. My voice had gone quiet. The excitement drained from Naruto as I let my chin drop and looked him in the eye. "Sure, I can remember getting to meet my mama and papa for the first time… but I can also remember looking into the faces of my mother and father for the last time. I remember their expressions as they both walked straight to their deaths."  
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  
For every advantage, there is an equal and opposite disadvantage.  
I was able to remember everything but that meant I remembered both the good and the bad. I couldn't just forget when something bad happened. It was stuck in my mind, haunting me for the rest of my life, there was nothing I could do to truly block out bad memories, no way for me to suppress them and the emotions that they came with.  
Naruto stared at me, his mouth open a bit, speechless.  
Stiffly I stood and gathered up my crutches in one hand while using my other to help get into a standing position. "I'm going to go back a bit further into the forest, I need to summon Toshiko and get her to bring me some herbs so I can refill some of my poisons. Don't come find me unless I call for you 'cause there might be some stuff airborne."  
I turned and forged my way deeper through the forest without taking another look back.  
.-.-.  
I didn't go too far, mostly to avoid being out of reach of help, should I need it, but I wanted some space right now. After the voices had long faded and I found an area with a good amount of grassless dirt I settled down and put my crutches aside. I had left my book back at home because it was too bulky to lug around for an entire mission but I could easily remember the stuff I needed for what I wanted to make.  
I bit at my thumb and twisted my fingers into the hand sign, forcefully shoving my palms down onto the dirt. With a small poof of dust a little white fox popped into existence, staring at me with her bright blue eyes inquisitively.  
"Hello Mistress, how may I help you?"  
"Hi Toshiko," I replied. "I just need you to restock me with some herbs and bring me some supplies to make the poisons."  
"Of course. Do you have anything specific you wish for me to bring you?"  
"I need foxglove, common oleander, apple of sodom, arnica, belladonna, bird's foot trefoil, and water. I also need some vials, my mortar and pestle, my pot, my gloves, my mask, and my goggles. They should be in my workshop."  
All of that would be enough to occupy me for at least two or three hours. The boys would be hard at work training, so there wasn't going to be any need for me to be there for a while.  
"I'll fetch them at once Mistress."  
"Thank you, Toshiko."  
"You are welcome," she said and inclined her head.  
Then she flickered out of existence, off to pick up what I needed from my workshop that was hidden deep in the forest on the Nara's compound. I had told Shikamaru that I needed somewhere to keep all of the stuff because mama and papa didn't want it in the house in passing and the next day he had brought me to an empty shack in the back of the compound. Apparently it had been used at one point for the opposite use, to prepare and package medicinal products, but since the hardware was much the same, it came fully stocked, already containing nearly everything I would need to get myself started.  
I felt a pang of homesickness at the thought of my friends and family-this was the longest I'd ever been apart from mama and papa. They were probably worried sick. We'd only thought the mission would take seven to ten days, at the most. Now it was bound to be at least two weeks, and I had no way of sending them any kind of message because it went against protocol.  
Then there were my boys. Lately, because all of us were now busy with training and, in their case, missions, we hadn't been able to spend as much time together, but we still made a point of meeting at least once a week, even if all we did was sit under the trees and watch the sky for a few hours. I had grown so used to talking to them and seeing them that it felt weird not seeing them for this long.  
"Mistress?"  
I jumped a little. Toshiko was sitting in front of me, everything I asked for set out in a neatly arranged pile. "Sorry, I was just thinking. Thank you."  
"My pleasure," she said. "If you require anything else do not hesitate to ask."  
I nodded and she poofed away, leaving nothing but an empty patch of dirt.  
Before I touched anything else I slipped on my gloves, battered goggles, and mask. I hadn't yet grown too much of an immunity to the poisons I was handling and I couldn't take any risks there. After I had all of them properly adjusted I grabbed at some of the stray twigs and leaves that were lying on the ground, digging a small hole in the dirt and then tossing them in. A simple hand sign had them crackling to life with flames consuming the thin bits of wood. I poured in the water Toshiko had brought me and set the pot over the flames so that it could begin to heat while I prepared the herbs.  
I grouped together my belladonna, arnica, and apple of sodom. They would go together to create an incredibly lethal mixture that I could save for now and use later on to coat some of my remaining kunai and senbon. I needed to give my pot a bit to gather heat before I tossed them in, however. I set those three aside and picked up my oleander.  
Slowly, I stripped away the parts that I actually wanted to use, setting them it into the mortar. All parts of the flower would paralyze which was what I wanted to use the plant for. If I wasn't careful, though, I'd include the parts that were also potentially lethal. What I wanted were the petals - but I wanted the petals that didn't have any pollen on them. Each petal I removed I checked the colouring to ensure it was clean before I placed them in the mortar. I set aside the lethal sections of the flower before I began rhythmically grinding it in slow circular motions. It was soft and grinded fairly easily. Toshiko had brought me enough of the flowers to almost fill up the vial.  
After I had completely grinded out the petals I sent my chakra into the pestle, letting it flow through the marble and infuse itself into the powder. When that was done I grabbed an empty vial and tipped the powder into, watching that I didn't spill any - that wasn't something I wanted any of the wildlife getting ahold of. I pulled at any bits that were left in the mortar, using my chakra to attract even the smallest of specs and transferring them into the vial.  
When I was sure it was completely vacant of anything else I dumped in my bird's foot trefoil and foxglove. This was a new combination that I wanted to test out. I had never read of them being together. The foxglove was lethal, but it also had more strength and durability in the paralysis than I could get out of a purely bird's foot trefoil powder. I had only put in half of the foxglove that Toshiko had brought me, setting the rest aside with my discarded sections from earlier.  
I repeated the same process that I had with the oleander, grinding it up until it was a fine powder that I could transfer into a vial. There was something about making these poisons, going through the motions, that calmed me down, distracting me from any negative thoughts that had been running wild through my head.  
Thankfully the two powders were different colours so it would be able to label them when I got back to the house later. I checked the two vials to make sure they were securely sealed.  
I pushed those a safe distance away and pulled the remaining ingredients in front of me. The pot was properly heated, the water contained inside of it at a gentle boil. It didn't take much water - too much actually and you would dilute the herbs too much and then they'd lose their lethality. I dropped the apple of sodom and the belladonna in my mortar and crushed them both until they were mushy. This sped up the process a lot. Then I let them fall into the water along with the arnica.  
There wasn't much else I had to do besides give it the odd stir every fifteen or twenty minutes. The mix bubbled and sputtered, darkening into a deep purple colour before lightening up again, settling at a nearly translucent violet colour.  
At that point I knew that the mixture was ready to be taken off heat. I grabbed the handle and lifted it up off the ground enough that I could blow out the small fire smoldering beneath it. I put it back down over the smoking pit and then sat back for a few minutes, giving the liquid a chance to cool enough that I could safely pour it out.  
I hummed to myself, passing the time the easiest way I knew how.  
"Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
I looked over Jordan and what did I see  
Comin' for to carry me home  
A band of angels comin' after me  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
If you get to heaven before I do  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Tell all my friends I'm comin' there too  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
I'm sometimes up and sometimes down  
Comin' for to carry me home  
But still I know I'm heavenly (freedom) bound  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
If I get there before you do  
Comin' for to carry me home  
I'll cut a hole and pull you through  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home  
Swing low, sweet chariot  
Comin' for to carry me home."  
I sang the words aloud, in English, as my mom had to me for years. I hadn't heard myself speak in English for years. Hearing my voice when I spoke English, even as I sang, was in stark contrast to when I spoke Japanese. The words felt foreign on my tongue. I shook my head and rid myself of those thoughts - I had had enough of memories intruding my mind for one day. I grabbed the pot and dumped them into the vial before I twisted the cap closed and set it amongst the rest of my mixtures from today.  
Slowly I stripped off my gear, setting them down on the ground beside the pot, shaking out my hair and taking in a big breath of fresh air.  
A single hand sign brought Toshiko back in front of me.  
"Yes, Mistress?"  
"Can you please take these back to my workshop?"  
"Right away," she said.  
"Thank you."  
She tipped her head and then disappeared, reappearing seconds after. "Anything else?"  
"Yeah, actually," I said. "Do you have anything more… long term for pain?"  
Tazuna and Tsunami had been giving me the over the counter pain medication that they had, but so far it wasn't doing much to ease the pain in my ankle, and I was too scared to try and use my medical ninjutsu to try myself. I still had at least another two weeks of pain and I wasn't going to make it through without something to help take the edge off of it.  
"No, I do not, Mistress," she said. "That is beyond my abilities. However, there is somebody else who may be able to help you."  
"One of the other summons?"  
"Indeed. Normally I wouldn't aid in this, however… circumstances are calling for it," Toshiko said. "Her name is Keiko. Of the summons, she is the master of medicine. If you call for her, she will answer."  
"Thank you," I said.  
Toshiko's lips curled into what I assumed was a smile. "My pleasure."  
With those words she poofed away. I rubbed my hands together and bit at my thumb again, letting small droplets of blood flow from the broken skin. I slipped my fingers through the hand signs and pressed my palms down on the ground, letting the name resonate in my mind. Keiko.  
I felt a drain on my chakra and a small puff of dust sprouted in front of me. The dust fell away and I set my eyes upon a small little fox, brown with tufts of white on the tips of its ears and chest, its bright red eyes standing out.  
"Hello! I am Keiko," she chirped, her peppy tone taking me by surprise. "Are you my new Mistress?"  
"Yes, my name is Kasumi."  
"Lovely to meet you!" Her beady eyes traveled down my body and landed on my ankle. "Oh my, is that why you have called upon me?"  
I laughed a little. "You got me there. It's a bad break, and Toshiko said that you could give me something to help with the pain."  
"I can! If you allow me a minute I can provide you with pain relieves as well as aid it in the healing process with my own medical ninjutsu."  
Relief washed over me. "Take as long as you need, I'm not going anywhere," I replied.  
True to her word, she only took a minute, returning with five small bottles of a pink solution neatly lined up in front of her. They were small bottles, each one holding maybe three or four tablespoons worth of liquid.  
"These are all safe pain relievers. They are also very strong, so make sure that you do not take more than two doses in a day," she warned.  
"How much is a dose?"  
She hummed a little. "One cap full should be plenty for you. Take one dose when you wake up in the morning, and then another dose when you begin to feel the first one wearing off. However if the second dose begins to wear off then you must not take anymore for it will begin to lessen the effectiveness of the medication."  
"I understand," I said with a nod.  
"Very good!" she said. "Now then I shall aid in the healing of your break. My ninjutsu is not strong enough to mend it for you but I am able to speed it up and remove some of the pain."  
"Everything helps," I assured her.  
The small fox padded forward and placed her paws over my ankle. I winced. "Apologies," she said. "I will be fast."  
At first I only felt warmth.  
Her paws glowed green, just as my hand did when I performed medical ninjutsu, but this felt different. I watched the swelling lessen and the colour lighten a little, the pain soothed away. This lasted for a minute before she pulled away. As she said it was most definitely still broken. There was still swelling and some discolouration, but the pain was less and it overall looked improved.  
"That is all I am able to do, anymore and I fear I may do more harm than good."  
"No, it's great, thank you," I breathed. It looks like she had done four or five days worth of healing just in one minute. I understood why she would not do more, though. If she healed it while it was not properly aligned then it would have to be rebroken and allowed to heal from scratch.  
"I am happy to be of service!" she said cheerfully. "If that is all Mistress then I shall take my leave."  
"Yeah, that's it," I said.  
She poofed away, leaving me alone in the forest once again.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TEN  
.-.-.  
I limped back to the training site with a calmer mind and improved mood. Kakashi-sensei was lazing on the ground, watching the boys fall on their rears with unveiled amusement, his eyes crinkling at the edges, a solid tell that he was grinning beneath his thin fabric mask. I rolled my eyes.  
"Having fun?"  
"More than you can imagine," he replied.  
"Oh, I wouldn't bet on that," I said under my breath. I jerked my head over at them. "Have they been going at it the entire time I was gone?"  
"Yep. No breaks, not a single word between 'em."  
I whistled. "Impressive amount of chakra. I mean Naruto's blowing his like nobody's business, though he's got more chakra than nearly anybody I've come across," I said. "I'm more surprised with Sasuke. I didn't think he could hold up to Naruto in this respect."  
"Sasuke's control balances it out," Kakashi-sensei observed. "He's using way less which is allowing him to keep going for this long. If he had the same control as Naruto he would have burnt out at least half an hour ago."  
Naruto was standing in front of his tree, legs spread apart, knees bent, hand braced on his knees, hunched over and huffing loud enough that I could hear him easily from ten yards away. He hadn't taken notice of us yet, but Sasuke had, sending me a sidelong glance before attacking his tree again ferociously. The entire trunk of the tree he was practicing on had dents and cracks in the bark from him using too much chakra.  
"His control might be better, but he's using way too much chakra - he's shredding the shit out of his tree."  
Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "He'll figure it out soon enough." He eyed the bottles I had stuffed into my pockets. "Looks like you've been busy yourself."  
I pulled out one of my vials and smiled at the way it glinted in the sunlight. It was a light violet colour that was even more translucent in the direct rays of the sun. "Busy is one word."  
"What's in the bottle?"  
I grinned impishly. "Do you really want to know?"  
He paused and eyed me apprehensively. "Nothing good ever comes out of that smile."  
"This is the most lethal poison I've ever made," I said cheerily, tossing it to him. He hesitated before snatching it out of the air; he let the small bottle roll over his palm, the liquid a thick syrup sliding around its container. "If you managed to get it in the right spot, the victim would convulse within thirty seconds and be dead within a minute."  
"Impressive," he commented, attention locked on the sloshing concoction.  
I pointed at the little glass vial. "That poison would have been impossible for me to make without having a summon. All three of those herbs grow in entirely different terrains in entirely different countries, so the odds of you finding something like it are fairly uncommon."  
He mulled over that for a minute before saying, "I've changed my mind. That's not impressive, that's frightening."  
I gave a small fake gasp. "Frightened? Of - how did you put it - an innocent, adorable youth?"  
"You're gonna make me regret calling you that, aren't you?"  
"Oh, hell yeah," I said. "Until your grave. Or mine, whichever comes first."  
"Get a Genin team, they said," he muttered to himself, rubbing a hand tiredly through his spiky frost white hair. "It'll be fun, they said."  
I snickered, taking back the poison from his palm and placing it securely into my pocket where it jingled against the rest of the bottles. "It is fun! Just maybe not for you."  
"Fantastic."  
"I am aren't I."  
He peered over, eye shining with curiosity. "What else do you have in there?"  
I hummed absently, watching Naruto scramble in the air after losing his footing against the tree. "A stun poison and a sleeping poison to replace the ones that I used up a few days ago. The other bottles are some pain meds for when my ankle gets bad again."  
"Pain meds? Since when can you do anything like that?"  
"I can't," I said. "But one of my summons can."  
Kakashi-sensei's eyebrow raised. "You managed to call out another summon?"  
"Yeah. She's a healer," I explained. "The opposite of Toshiko. Her name is Keiko."  
"Helpful."  
"Very. She healed my ankle some as well, but she didn't want to do too much just in case."  
He nodded, taking another look at my ankle. "It does look better."  
"I thought so too. She took some of the swelling out but well… if she mended the bones crooked it'd have to be broken all over again and that's just a mess."  
For a while, the two of us sat, watching and enjoying the struggles of the boys, commenting on their mistakes as they made them. It took a long time before either of the boys took notice of my return. Sasuke saw me first, though he chose to ignore me rather than come and talk to me, not much of a shock there - he might be growing to stand me, but the boy hadn't taken a liking to me yet. I was getting close. Well, I liked to think I was getting close. There really wasn't any way to know for sure with that one.  
Naruto, on the other hand, did come over. Slowly. In a way that the normal Naruto wouldn't. He would have just charged over and smiled and shouted. This Naruto looked down at his hands, not holding my gaze.  
"Go over there," I said to Kakashi-sensei and pointed closer to Sasuke. He did nothing. I groaned, my expression souring. "Please go over there."  
"Ah, the magic word, just what I like to hear," our sensei said. "You kids have fun."  
He waved his hand and ambled over to a different tree, launching himself up to a branch and settling down on it, lounging with his smut book. "I swear to Kami…" I muttered. Then I turned my attention back to the little blonde who was fidgeting nervously. I watched him. The only time I had ever seen him act like this was after he'd pulled an especially bad prank, and he was getting in trouble for it. The realization dawned on me, and I felt my expression and posture soften. "Hey, I'm not mad at you."  
"You're not?" he asked, eyes wide.  
Now I felt guilty. Like, really guilty. Naruto, for all of his misgivings, and all of his stupid little messups, meant well - most of the time at least. Due to how little socialization he experienced he still was a work in progress there but in the show he had been worse. This Naruto had had years of being around Shikamaru, Choji, and myself. He was better. He did still have his moments, however.  
His problems mostly came in with gauging how other people were feeling, as with earlier, but even with that I'd seen a lot of progress compared to how he was in the original storyline. Obviously he did better with people he knew, but he still managed to surprise me sometimes.  
"No," I replied. "I was just upset. Not at you, though."  
"Oh."  
"Yeah."  
Then he nodded firmly, grinned, and flashed a thumbs up. "Alright!" he cheered. I smothered a laugh - the kids ability to bounce back was undeniable. "Since you're not mad at me, can you give me some advice?"  
"I think I can do that."  
"Good, 'cause last time you showed me how to do this you gave me no help at all and I just kept falling on my ass."  
That time I did laugh because that had been the point. He had insisted on me showing him how to do it even when I said that he had little to no chance of being able to do it. In hindsight, that probably only spurred him on more, stubborn as he was. I thought back to the advice given in the show and the tips I had read in the book that I used to help teach me the techniques years ago.  
"Don't stress out," I said. "You have to stay calm and not let your emotions take over. If you're too anxious or stressed you won't be able to gather the chakra properly and then you'll lose too much of it to actually stay on the trunk."  
He scratched his head. "Don't stress?"  
I looked over at the Uchiha who was still busy tearing chunks of bark off his tree. "Forget Sasuke. If you keep worrying about what he's doing, you won't be spending enough time thinking about what you're doing. This takes focus and control. Believe you can do it."  
"Okay, I think I got it. Thanks Kasu!"  
"You're welcome, now go away," I said. "You got training to do."  
He ran off back to his tree and I sat back to watch him fail a little more. He had some time to go before the advice would actually sink in and even then he'd have a time to go before he could accomplish the technique.  
.-.-.  
After that, I found myself spending a lot of time inside, on bed rest. The pain meds helped keep me comfortable but I was still injured and my mobility wasn't the best so I tended to stay in one place for most of the day, only being moved around when it was time for a meal.  
One evening during supper, I found myself unable to look away from Inari. Everybody else chatted at the table, but he remained silent, eyes locked on a picture that hung on the wall behind me. I knew what it was. I wasn't sure if anybody else had caught on, but conversation was one that needed to happen to motivate Naruto.  
I sighed, not wanting to be the one to kickstart the topic but knowing that I was going to have to.  
"Inari, I saw you staring at that torn picture earlier. It looks like there used to be somebody else in it," I remarked casually but carefully. "You couldn't take your eyes off of it for the entire meal."  
The silence that followed the comment was strained. Inari and Tazuna both remained silent, and Kakashi-sensei turned over towards me, taken aback by my brazen nosiness. I was normally the type to respect boundaries, and if Sakura hadn't done it in the show, I likely wouldn't have done it on my own, but Kaiza's story needed to be heard.  
"It's my husband," Tsunami said quietly, her movements jerky as she washed the dishes from supper.  
"They used to call him a hero," Tazuna murmured.  
Inari slipped off of his chair and moved towards the door.  
"Inari, where are you going?" Tsunami demanded, the dishes forgotten.  
The boy offered no reply, instead leaving the room and slamming the door shut behind him. I sat back in my chair, a hint of guilt blossoming in my chest at having to be the one to ask.  
Tsunami followed him out of the room, angrily tossing over her shoulder, "Father you can't talk about him like that in front of Inari, you know that!"  
Heaving a sigh, Tazuna rubbed a tired hand over his face. The quiet lasted for a minute or so, and I waited to see if anybody else would inquire further. Great. Looks like I would have to be the one to push the scene forward.  
"What happened to that man? Inari seems so… broken up over it," I said.  
Kakashi-sensei rested his elbows on the table and added, "Is there a story to it?"  
"He wasn't his real father," Tazuna explained. "He came into the family later, and he brought happiness with him. The two were close. In those days, Inari used to actually laugh… but then it all ended. I've never seen that boy smile again."  
Tears pooled on the table, and Tazuna launched into the tale of Kaiza. I could remember most, if not all of it, but I listened anyway, letting the sadness of the tale wash over me.  
"Since then… well, Inari's changed," he said at the end of it. "Tsunami and all of our people, we lost our will."  
I looked over at Naruto and I saw it in his eyes. That fire of determination burned brighter than it had before, a new fuel added to the flame. I watched him stand up and fall down against the table, his knees buckling from exhaustion.  
"What are you doing?" I muttered.  
"You should take the day off from training, Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said. "Your chakra's low. Any more and you might end up killing yourself."  
"I'll prove it," he said.  
"Prove what, idiot?" Sasuke asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.  
The little blond stood up on shaking legs with his fist raised defiantly in front of him. "I'll prove that in this world, there are real heroes!"  
And with that he charged out of the room, off to throw himself into training as I knew he would.  
.-.-.  
That next day I was up in what was temporarily my room, settled down on the perch beneath the window, various pages of notes, books, pencils, and other miscellaneous items strewn around me. During breakfast I had dropped a few subtle hints, just enough to push Sasuke into going out and looking for Naruto, though he'd never admit that that was what he'd done.  
Since I had nothing else to really worry about for the rest of the day I'd gotten comfortable with one of the books that Tsunami had lent to me.  
It wasn't a book I'd normally pick for myself but with nothing else to do I'd become incredibly invested in the corny romance novel. It was almost like the Romeo and Juliet of the ninja world, two feuding clans and two young lovers caught in the middle. For a book that took place on the brink of a bloodbath, there was a surprising lack of action, instead mostly focusing on the love between the shinobi and the politics keeping them apart.  
I glanced up from the book when I heard my door open and Naruto charged in, out of breath. "Kasu, I just met the weirdest guy!"  
There was nothing new there. His meeting Haku in the forest was inevitable, but it also was a frightening reality check. If I remembered correctly, there were no more than a few days left to when the Land of Waves arc ended. That meant we'd be seeing Zabuza and Haku again sooner than I'd like.  
Even with my ankle healing I wouldn't be in any kind of shape to be entering a fight without just re injuring it and causing more damage than before - a break could become a permanent disability if handled improperly. There were at least a good three weeks ahead of me before I was in good enough shape to be walking without crutches. As impatient as I was, the last thing I wanted to do was make this break worse than I already did in our last encounter with Zabuza.  
That meant when the final confrontation happened, I had to stay on the sidelines and watch my friends fight without me. The bitter consequences of my actions.  
"Oh yeah?" I said, scooting over a bit so I was sitting on the edge of the window sill. Naruto bounded over, somehow full of energy, and hopped onto the bed in front of me, bouncing up and down on his knees.  
"Yeah! We talked about a ton of stuff and I totally thought he was a chick until right before he left when he said he was a dude."  
I rolled my eyes. "What kind of stuff did you talk about?" I asked, already knowing the answer but choosing to humor him.  
"I told him that I'm going to be Hokage one day and he told me about how he wanted to protect the people who are precious to him, and something about how that makes him stronger."  
"That's a good dream to have," I said. "Being able to protect those you love."  
"Uh huh. I like my dream better."  
"Well obviously."  
"Protecting people is a good dream too, though," he relented and flopped down on his side, having calmed down a fair amount now that he had told me his news.  
I could see the effects of chakra exhaustion now setting in. What little energy he had shown earlier seemed to have died out now, replaced by droopy eyes and yawns. I used the side of the wall to pull myself up and I carefully transferred my body onto the bed, laying down beside him, my shoulder pushing up against his.  
He had taken off his normal jacket, wearing only a navy blue t-shirt, probably due to the heat. Even from where I lay I could feel the heat radiating off of him.  
I sighed a little. "That's part of the reason I became a shinobi, you know," I remarked. "I wanted to keep all of the people I love the most safe. Mama, papa, you, Shika, Cho…"  
It would have been easy for me to choose to forget my ninja roots and instead just live the life of a civilian. Mama and papa owned a bistro in town, and I could have grown up learning the way of the business and eventually taken it over. Papa still took me in and had me help him out on some of my off days - my incredible memory made me an awesome waitress - but I knew that if I hadn't become a shinobi I would have worked there my whole life.  
Yet, I couldn't just do that.  
The idea of working in a restaurant my entire life seemed like a waste.  
The boy stiffened a little. "Me?" he asked.  
I snorted, gently smacking his arm. "Of course." I rolled my head over and couldn't help but laugh at the radiant smile on his face. "You're like the brother I never had."  
A laugh bubbled from his mouth. I turned my head to look over at him and couldn't help but smile at the completely giddy grin on his face.  
The conversation ended there, but the two of us lay there for a little longer. He was content. I was content. Even if it was short, the small pocket of peace was welcomed, especially with what I knew lay not too far ahead.  
.-.-.  
It wasn't long before the boys mastered tree climbing.  
A couple of days without much sleep later found both boys out in the forest training. I had tagged along today, tired of spending hours upon hours looking at the same four walls. Something in my gut told me that today would be the day that they finished, but I had no way of actually knowing, since in both the book and the show it was never really illustrated how much time passed between situations. In my mind, the entire Land of Waves arc was a week, but so far we'd been gone for a little over two.  
Either way, the boys finishing their training was a major event in the timeline, and helped me get my bearings in terms of how much longer we were likely to be away. Much to Sasuke's chagrin, Naruto was ahead so far, by a fair amount. He wasn't at the top yet but he was damn close, only three or four branches from it.  
"Ha! Look at how high up I am!" he wheezed, sweat dripping from his forehead. "Look at me Kasu I'm higher up than Sasuke!"  
"I can see that," I returned absently, playing around with various herb compositions.  
"You're not even looking!"  
"Mhm."  
Sasuke grunted in annoyance. Kakashi-sensei so far had been going with Tazuna while the boys trained so that he wouldn't be left unguarded. I hadn't even bothered to offer to go because I would be a pretty useless guard, so the boys had been training almost entirely on their own during the day until our sensei came back in the evenings.  
Too tired to keep going, the blonde hopped down and lay spread eagle out on the grass, staring up at the sky, barely awake. Sasuke gave him an annoyed look from where he stood, still poised and ready to run at it. Exhausted out of his mind Naruto blabbered on for a bit, only slightly less coherent than he usually was.  
"Quiet down, loser," Sasuke said with a scowl. "I'm trying to train."  
"I'm not a loser!"  
"Yes you are."  
"Nu uh!"  
"Yeah!"  
Naruto huffed, cracking open one eye to return the scowl. "Yeah well I'm way ahead of you on the tree," he teased.  
Sasuke bristled. His eyes narrowed, but he said nothing, because Naruto had him there. I watched him flex his fists before his body relaxed and he fell into an easy, smug smirk that made me want to punch him in the nose. "You're only winning because Kasumi helped you. I didn't get any help," he said.  
I scoffed, not bothering to look up from my notes. "Lame."  
"Lame?"  
"That's a lame excuse," I said. "Especially considering you didn't get any help 'cause you never asked for any."  
He didn't reply, instead simply staring at me, almost like if he looked at me long enough I'd poof out of existence. Even now, after all this time, I couldn't tell if Sasuke didn't like me or just didn't know how to respond to me. I was one of the few people who didn't feel intimidated by him and probably the only female his age to not praise the ground he walked on.  
All round the village people didn't know how to act around him. Some avoided him like the plague, not daring to meet the smouldering eyes of a twelve year old who had seen more sorrow in one day then they'd see in their entire lives. Others would treat him like a god. He probably had barely any idea of what it felt like to be treated like a normal human being anymore; going through losing his entire family was bad enough, the contrast in social interactions was doing nothing to help it.  
Intrigued by the silence, I glanced up, and the utter blankness in his eyes struck me light a lightning bolt. His features were twisted into a mixture between annoyance and confusion, but his eyes reflected none of that, void of any real emotion. There was no word to describe it except disturbing.  
My bottom lip drooped, my tongue unable to process the words reeling in my mind.  
Then, as soon as it appeared, the tension fizzled, and Sasuke turned back to his tree, completely ignoring the existence of Naruto and I.  
Naruto was too exhausted to care about the weird behavior of his teammate. When the other boy turned away, to my surprise, he shrugged it off, only muttering something that I couldn't catch. For a while he just lay there, staring up at the clouds, chattering aimlessly, and laughing at Sasuke when he messed up. He'd spent the last week and a half pushing his body to its limits with this training and now he had no energy left to be his wild, hyperactive self.  
I nodded along, vaguely listening, chewing on the end of my pen.  
Kakashi-sensei returned a bit before the sun began to go down, Tazuna in tow. As usual he had his book in one hand and the other shoved into his pocket, bored beyond comprehension. Tazuna walked past, ignoring us completely. Kakashi-sensei instead came to a stop beside me, snapping his book shut to stare down at Naruto.  
"You look to be doing an awful lot of nothing for somebody supposed to be training," he said, but there was an expectant note in his voice.  
Naruto sat up at the voice. "Kakashi-sensei!" he shouted. "Guess what, I'm almost to the top of my free!"  
"Good work," he praised.  
Naruto grinned before flopping down onto his back, eyes slipping shut.  
Sasuke either didn't hear our sensei approach or he didn't care. He threw himself at the tree with a renewed vigor - he wouldn't let himself be shown up by Naruto of all people. This was the third tree he'd worked on because he'd torn up the other two too badly to get any kind of footing on it. Even now, as close as he was to making it to the top, he was using too much chakra. If anything Naruto beating him seemed to have pushed his progress back. He was letting his anger fuel him.  
"Still too much," I murmured.  
Kakashi-sensei hummed in agreement. "He won't ask for help, he's too stubborn." He looked down at me with his eyebrow raised.  
I shook my head, picking up on what he was implying. "No, I'm not helping him. If he wants me to help he can walk his ass over here and ask for it."  
"He won't do it."  
"I know."  
He didn't look away. I tried to go back to my notes, but his gaze burned into the side of my head, unrelenting. No way was I going to help him. He could do it himself. He would do it himself. The solid thud of him landing on the ground again had my grip on my pen tightening. Footsteps. The shredding of bark as he made another attempt to get all the way up. Another thud.  
I groaned, throwing my pen and paper down next to me.  
"Hand me my crutches."  
Kakashi-sensei grabbed them with one hand and used the other to pull me up, the crinkle of a victorious smirk on his face. I slid them under my arms and hobbled over to where Sasuke was working.  
I could just leave him and eventually he would figure it out himself. The biggest problem with that was since Naruto completed his training today, tomorrow was the final confrontation with Zabuza, and if he didn't finish his training he wouldn't be going anywhere tomorrow, no matter what. I wasn't going to take a chance like that. If, for whatever reason, he didn't go to the bridge tomorrow, there was the definite risk of somebody dying that otherwise wouldn't.  
I hobbled over to where he was and leant my shoulder against a tree, watching not only him but his chakra.  
The thing with chakra is that emotions of really any kind had the tendency to get in the way of effectively controlling it. Some were worse than others - anger, frustration, and panic made control the most difficult. Medic-nin went through emotion control training before they were allowed in the field because of how precise their control had to be even with adrenaline pumping through their veins. When learning a technique like tree climbing, where the balance and control had to be perfect, the emotions Sasuke felt were the kiss of death.  
He stood in front of his tree, panting, muscles tense in frustration. He bounded forward at it and I watched the chakra at his feet form an unstable bond between him and the tree, fading away the further up he went.  
The bark rained down around him as he fell again.  
"Too much," I said.  
He attacked the tree again with the same result.  
"Still too much."  
"I don't want your help," he snapped.  
"I don't want to help you," I replied.  
"Then go away."  
"Kakashi-sensei wants me to give you advice."  
"I don't need your help," he said forcefully. "You're messing with my concentration. Leave."  
His eyes may have been empty earlier, but now they were full of anger, passion, and frustration - those were some of the only emotions he had no problem displaying. I didn't flinch at the apparent threat.  
"You're allowed to get help, you know," I said. "It doesn't make you any less of a shinobi."  
He grunted some angry words that I couldn't decipher and threw himself at the tree again, making it barely three quarters of the way up. For something like a ninjutsu, anger could motivate the user to make something more powerful than they could in any other emotional state. Right now though it was making it completely impossible for him to make it up the tree.  
"You of all people should know better than to let your emotions get the better of you," I said. "Look, I don't care whether or not you want my help, but I'm not leaving until you at least let me say something, so you might as well just shut up and listen because it'll be easier for both of us."  
He glared at me, but the heat behind it died out a little as he grudgingly bit out, "Fine."  
"First off, you're being kinda stupid. You know better than anybody that anger won't help you when you're trying to keep precise control over your chakra," I said, holding up one finger. I lifted the second one. "Second, you're using way too much chakra. You've definitely got the idea in terms of how to form it but look at that tree; there's so much chakra there that you've shredded the shit out of that tree."  
It wasn't exactly what I'd told Naruto, but the idea was the same.  
"That's it?"  
I shrugged. "You've already got it down for the most part, you just need to refine what you're doing."  
"Whatever," he said and turned away from me, effectively ending the conversation.  
If he wasn't my teammate and an integral part of the universe I'd wring his rude little neck. I clenched my jaw and looked up at the sky, silently counting down from ten, letting out a breath. I hadn't expected any kind of thank you but it still would have been nice to get some acknowledgement. I'd probably never get that out of him, but hey, a girl could hope.  
I moved back towards where I had been sitting before and plopped down on the ground, letting my head fall back against the tree.  
"How long do you think before he actually listens?" I asked aloud.  
As expected, Kakashi-sensei had heard, appearing beside me. "Give it another couple of hours. I'm sure by supper tonight he'll have it mastered."  
"He better, or we'll never hear the end of it from Naruto."  
.-.-.  
Of course, but the time dinner rolled around, both boys had made it to the top of their trees. Both boys were also completely exhausted of chakra and energy. Sasuke strolled in, Naruto hoisted over his shoulder. I raised an eyebrow. I knew he was going to be tired, but he couldn't even hold himself up properly - Sasuke appeared to be holding up all of his weight for him.  
"Look at you two," Tazuna said. "You look like you've both been busy."  
"We made it to the top of our trees, both of us!" he said. I narrowed my eyes at him, easily picking up no the near inaudible slur to his words.  
"Good, starting tomorrow both of you will take on bodyguard positions while Tazuna is out building the bridge," Kakashi-sensei announced.  
Naruto cheered, dragging Sasuke down onto the ground with him.  
I pushed my chair back and sat on the small ledge behind the table. "Bring Naruto over here, I wanna check him out."  
"I'm sure he's fine," Kakashi-sensei said.  
"I'm 'kay, Kasu," he said. "Just a bit tired."  
"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Bring him over here I still wanna take a look."  
Sasuke obliged, laying him down in front of me before sitting down in his own chair. I cracked my knuckles and let the green chakra flood my hands. It was kind of hard to explain what it was like using medical ninjutsu to get a diagnosis. The chakra allowed something akin to an x-ray, but one that wasn't visual, rather being able to feel what was wrong.  
There were no injuries which I already knew. The complete lack of chakra was a bit shocking. There were only small bits left that were allowing his chakra coils to stay alive, but if he wasn't a jinchuriki he probably would be dead with the levels of chakra exhaustion he was experiencing.  
"You're such an idiot," I said. "You've basically emptied yourself of chakra."  
He laughed. "I'm an idiot who can climb a tree though."  
I shook my head, waving him off. "Whatever. Somebody move him, he needs to get some food and then a shitload of sleep."  
Tazuna moved him into a chair and then helped me back into mine while Tsunami finished getting all of the food laid out on the table. Dinner was a silent affair - all of us were too hungry and tired to maintain any kind of conversation. I watched Naruto carefully to make sure his body was still properly producing chakra, more out of curiosity than worry, though. His reserves filled themselves faster than any others I'd seen before, at least triple the speed of my own. It was uncanny to watch.  
After dinner, Tazuna spoke up. "The bridge will be done in a couple of days," he said. "And I have all of you to thank for that."  
"You've still got to be careful," Tsunami chimed in.  
"I've been meaning to ask you this, but I hadn't have the chance until now. Why'd you stay and help me after I lied?" the old man inquired.  
"Those who stray from the path of justice have no courage. But under the wing of a strong leader, cowardice cannot survive."  
"Huh?"  
"That was a quote, from the first Hokage," Kakashi-sensei explained.  
I glanced over at Inari, already waiting for the explosion that I knew was bound to happen. A few moments of comfortable silence fell over the group before the little boy's tears began to drip onto the table, his eyes shaded by his hat.  
"But why…" he whimpered.  
Naruto lifted his head. "What'd you say, kid?"  
He slammed his hands down on the table. "All of this stupid training, you're just waiting your time! Gato has an army and these dumb tricks aren't going to help you defeat him! All this stuff you say, it doesn't mean anything, the strong always win and the weak always lose!"  
"Just speak for yourself," Naruto said. "It won't be like that for me."  
"Why don't you be quiet! You make me sick, you know nothing!" he shouted. "Laughing and playing around, that's all you do, you have no idea what it's like to suffer and be treated like trash."  
I clenched my fists, struggling to hold in any foul words that were begging to be slung. It was hard, hearing this kid shout that at somebody without having any context of what he was talking about. Things that Naruto went through, no child should have to go through.  
"Listen to yourself, you whiny little brat. You sound like nothing but a sorry little victim. You can whimper all day for all I care, you're just a coward!"  
He stood and stormed out of the room, hands shoved in his pockets, gaze downset. Instinctively I went to follow him but Kakashi-sensei put a hand on my arm, keeping me from going after him. I closed my eyes and hissed out a breath through my teeth, ignoring the sniffles of the little boy who sat across the table from me.  
"Give him some time," Kakashi-sensei said. "He's going to need to cool off a bit, you know that."  
I knew it, but I didn't like it.  
Inari too left the room, likely going to the porch. Kakashi-sensei gave him a couple of minutes before going off after him. I folded my arms on the table and let my head fall down onto them, hoping to ward off the headache that was pricking against the base of my skull. Nobody spoke. After a short time, I felt Sasuke get up and walk out of the room.  
Absently, I traced his chakra signal, watching it float across the house until it stopped in what I assumed was his room. I felt around and noticed Naruto's also seemed to be remaining in one spot. It had the subdued energy to it that typically came along with sleep, though how he could sleep after that I didn't know. I lifted my head and sighed, rubbing my eyes.  
Tsunami still stood at the counter, busying herself with cleaning up from supper, and Tazuna remained across the table from me, observing me with a curious gaze. I leveled my gaze with his and waited for him to ask whatever was burning in his mind.  
"I've never seen the kid talk like that," he rumbled instead, dancing around the question.  
"The way Naruto reacted was tame compared to what I would have said if I were him," I murmured, tracing my finger along the table. Before he could respond I added, "And don't go pulling any of that 'he's only a kid, he doesn't know better' crap with me."  
"He's eight years old!" Tsunami burst, looking at me in exasperation and throwing her towel down on the counter. "What do you expect?"  
"That he'll learn not to assume he knows of the pain another has experienced."  
"That little boy has experienced pain that no child should ever go through," she said angrily. "Cut him some slack!"  
I sat back, raising an eyebrow. "So has Naruto."  
"He lost his father."  
From upstairs I could sense both of the boys chakra signatures in a somewhat unstable sleep that could be easily disturbed. I stretched my senses in the other direction, monitoring Kakashi-sensei and Inari. I let Tsunami's statement sit in the air and pursed my lips, contemplating the best choice of words to come next.  
"When I was five, I started at the Academy," I began quietly, my gaze falling back down to the table. "All of the kids were so loud and obnoxious, but I remember that the worst was a blond named Naruto Uzumaki. He was always the loudest, smiled the brightest, and laughed the most."  
"So the same as he is now," Tazuna said.  
"I also remember that little five year old boy had the saddest eyes I had ever seen," I continued, looking up and resting my elbows up on the table, entwining my fingers together and letting my chin sit on them. Tazuna and Tsunami both looked at me with disbelief. "Naruto's story isn't mine to tell, but I will say this - that boy grew up with no parents and an entire village hating him for reasons that he didn't understand."  
"That's a bit dramatic," the old man said, but it was almost more of a question than a statement.  
I gave a bitter laugh. "Kami, I wish it was," I said. "Naruto has gone through pain and hurt that I can't even begin to understand, but he always holds his head up. Somehow, he managed to take all of that pain and instead of letting it turn him bitter, he used it to be kind."  
The two adults were silent, digesting all the information I'd just tossed at them. I had nothing else to say. I was tired, and the pain meds for my ankle were on the verge of wearing off, the dull ache creeping back into existence. In the back of my mind I noticed the two chakra signatures from the porch shifting closer towards us, signalling that Kakashi-sensei and Inari had finished their own little chat.  
A couple of seconds later, Kakashi-sensei walked in, but he had no young child in tow.  
"Inari's going to sleep," he said. The man sat down in the chair next to me. "What'd I miss?"  
"Basically the same conversation you had with Inari," I answered tiredly. By this point my eyes were beginning to droop shut. I pushed my chair back and grabbed my crutches, ready to try and at least get a few hours of sleep before tomorrow. It was definitely not the right day to be sleep deprived.  
The adults at the table let me leave. It wasn't until I made it to the stairs that I remembered I couldn't make it up on my own, especially not when I was this tired and groaned, banging one of my crutches against the ground in frustration. Why couldn't I just sleep somewhere that was on the ground floor?  
Footsteps sounded behind me and somebody picked me up bridal style, crutches and all.  
Kakashi-sensei carried me all the way to my room and set me down outside of it, opening the door for me and sarcastically gestured into the room.  
I snorted. "When did I get a butler instead of a sensei?"  
"You're hilarious," he said, wholly unamused.  
"Really though… thanks," I said.  
"Don't sweat it kid," he replied and went back downstairs, leaving me to my own thoughts.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER ELEVEN  
.-.-.  
Mostly, I was worried.  
Logically I couldn't go with the boys tomorrow to the bridge. I didn't like it, but I would be an easy target, and Zabuza would make use of that in a fight, so there wasn't much point of me going with them. As well I really had no role that I needed to play - Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi are the ones who fought, Sakura just stood on the sidelines, making no real contribution to the fight. Without me they could win.  
More than that though, I had begun to have thoughts about whether or not I should - or even could - save Zabuza and Haku. It wasn't the first or the last time I had the internal debate regarding whether it was wise to make changes to the plot.  
The idea of making changes terrified me because it meant taking the chance of literally screwing up the fate of the world.  
I had yet to figure out exactly how things worked in that whole department. I mean, it wasn't all that easy to experiment. So far, even with my involvement, everything was following the path that it was meant to, but there was no promise that it would continue to do so, especially if I took it upon myself to try and change things. Gambling with destiny was a dangerous game and if I didn't come out on top, I might not be the only one to suffer the consequences.  
There was also the fact that I had no idea how I would go about keeping Haku and Zabuza alive. I'd have to convince both parties that killing each other wasn't in their best interest, and ultimately, I didn't think I could do that. I wasn't a miracle worker. I was, in their eyes, just a little girl. Why on earth would they listen to me?  
Eventually, I managed to shut my brain off long enough to get a few hours of sleep. I didn't dream. The sun broke over the horizon and spread its golden rays across the sky, gleaming through my windows and pounding against my closed eyelids. I sighed. Before I noticed anything else, the throbbing in my ankle stood out above all else; it was a sharp, stabbing pain, burning white hot and impossible to ignore.  
Broken bones were nasty business. I knew already that I was looking at upwards of six weeks before it would be fully healed if it had to be left to heal naturally. Hopefully once we got back to the village they could heal it entirely, but until then I had to deal with the pain. If it weren't for the medication Keiko had given me I don't know what I'd have done.  
I pawed at the side table, blindly grabbing around until my fingers met the cold glass of a bottle. I twisted the cap off and shakily poured the liquid into it. The medication easily went down in a single gulp, though I gagged a little after, the taste of rotten peaches lingering on my tongue. The heat from my ankle receded, and the pain faded out in less than a minute, now only a minor, dull ache.  
Groggily I opened my senses - Naruto, Sasuke, and Inari were all still asleep but everybody else seemed to be gathered down at the table. I moved away the blankets and carefully removed my leg from the sling that it was cradled in to keep it from getting jostled while I slept. It was a slow process, but I got myself out of bed and into the bathroom without any incident.  
I turned the tap, letting cold water flow into my cupped hands and splashed it on my face, blinking away the excess water. My skin tingled to life. I brushed my teeth as well before hobbling over to the top of the stares and glaring at them in disdain. Stairs and crutches didn't mix. Having a broken ankle combined with my general short stature made traversing the stairs on my own an annoyingly dangerous task.  
My mouth twisted into a scowl and I flared my chakra, the easiest way to signal that I needed Kakashi-sensei to come help me. He would have noticed that I woke up by now. On cue I heard his chair scrape against the kitchen floor, some words I couldn't decipher, then his feet padding against the ground and up the stairs.  
"Look who's up," he said, sounding far too cheery for how early I knew it must have been.  
"Hi."  
"You're really not a morning person, are you?"  
"No."  
He took my crutches in one hand and used the other to toss me over his shoulder, hauling me down the stairs with ease. I didn't bother fighting it, letting myself flop against his back.  
Conversation drifted to my ears as we entered the kitchen. Tazuna and Tsunami were both sitting at the table facing each other, empty plates sitting in front of them.  
"Morning girl," Tazuna grunted. "Up early as ever."  
I stuck my hand out from behind Kakashi-sensei's back in a wave. Kakashi-sensei set down my crutches beside a chair and tipped me off of his back and onto the chair in one fluid movement. I rubbed at my eyes, blinking away the sleep that still nagged at them.  
Tsunami set down a cup in front of me and I tried for a smile. "Thanks."  
She made a humming noise and sat back down in her spot.  
I curled my hands around the cup and inhaled the sweet scents of peach and ginger. Just the smell warmed me up. It brought back memories of my old life, sitting in my old house on the rainy days with mom and watching movies. It was a bittersweet feeling that sat like a rock in my gut.  
I took a sip and let out a soft breath, leaning back in my chair.  
Outside the world was coming to life. Birds were chirping and the sky was washed in a vibrant array of oranges. I let the warm cup sit on my thigh before taking another drink from the cup, thankful for the caffeine coursing through my veins.  
"So, Sasuke and I will be going with Tazuna today to the bridge," Kakashi-sensei said, catching my attention.  
"Got it."  
"I know that I probably don't have to ask, but can you keep an eye on Naruto? I don't want him getting into too much trouble now that he's finished his training. And I don't want him to do any training," Kakashi-sensei added on. "I don't want to have to tell the Hokage that the little idiot trained himself to death, that's a lot of lectures and a hell of a lot more paperwork. Though he I doubt he will n be able to get out of bed today with how hard he pushed himself."  
I cracked a grin. "Yeah, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid," I said.  
Not like there'd be much for me to do. The fight would start almost as soon as they reached the bridge, and Naruto would be racing off to help them.  
Tazuna grunted and stretched his arms above his head. "We oughta be leaving soon. The sun's up and I don't want to be wasting any daylight."  
"I'll go wake up Sasuke," Kakashi-sensei said.  
I stretched out my senses and reached out to Sasuke's chakra. His chakra was relatively subdued, but not so much as it would be if he were in any kind of deep level of sleep. "He's already partially awake," I said. "If you leave him he'll be down within the next five minutes or so and if you let him come down on his own, he might not be such a little asshole."  
"How do you know that?" Tazuna asked, eyes narrowed.  
"His chakra," I replied, stifling a yawn with my hand. I gave my head a gentle shake. "When somebody's asleep, their chakra signature tends to be more… fuzzy, for lack of a better term. It moves more slowly through their body. As they wake up, it sharpens, moves more quickly."  
"Can you do that with anybody?"  
I shrugged halfheartedly. "Yeah, but it's easier if I've been able to observe their chakra in various states beforehand otherwise I'm just sorta guessing."  
Kakashi-sensei looked at me, dully impressed. "I never realized you were that good with sensing chakra."  
"I've put a lot of practice into it," I said, picking up a piece of bread from the middle of the table and nibbling on it. "I had to do something during my Academy lessons."  
"Kami forbid you actually did your work."  
"Hey, I passed," I said indignantly.  
"Barely."  
"What's the Academy?" Tazuna inquired.  
"Shinobi school," I said. "It's where the kids in Konoha learn all of the basics of being a shinobi. We go to that instead of normal civilian school."  
He snorted. "You almost flunked shinobi school?"  
"Hey, if I had really wanted to, I could have been one of the top in my class," I defended and set my tea on the table, crossing my arms over my chest. "I just found all of the work boring so I didn't want to do it."  
"Iruka said you were the smartest kid to barely pass that he'd ever met," Kakashi-sensei mused.  
I groaned. "It's too fucking early for this."  
"Language!" Tsunami chastised, looking absolutely scandalized.  
I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything more.  
"Mouth of a sailor," Tazuna said.  
"Sue me."  
"What?"  
"Nothing."  
Tazuna eyed me oddly but was interrupted from saying anything else by Sasuke entering the kitchen, his hair a complete mess and his expression somehow managing to look crankier than usual. The Uchiha boy was far from a morning person.  
He slowly dragged his feet across the ground and sat down across from me, glaring down at the table with so much heat I almost expected smoke to start curling off its surface. Tsunami stood from her chair and grabbed a plate from out of the cupboards, filling it with a healthy serving of breakfast before setting it down in front of Sasuke.  
The boy made a sort of grunting noise and amazingly started to eat it without any form of complaint or protest.  
"Hurry and eat, we need to leave within the hour. We're losing sunlight."  
"Whatever," Sasuke muttered through a mouth of food.  
The table remained silent. I drank my tea, emptying the cut sip by sip. It wouldn't be long now until they left and the fight with Zabuza began as soon as they reached the bridge. From the house to the bridge wasn't all that far, and they were going to be leaving within the hour if Tazuna had any say about it.  
At the corner of my senses, I could feel Naruto was beginning to wake up as well, the edges of his chakra signature sharpening the more he drifted out of sleep.  
Outside the sun had risen well over the horizon to glimmer brilliantly against the blue sky. A fresh wave of air swept through the room and I took in a deep inhale, the beginning of a smile threatening to break out over my face; twelve years in this world and I still wasn't over how much more clear everything was. I could only hope that the state of the planet in my old life would stay in my old life.  
Under the table somebody poked at my good leg. I turned my head back to face forward and blinked owlishly, snapping out of my daze. "Sorry, what?" I asked.  
Tsunami smiled. "Do you want some more tea?" she asked.  
"No thanks," I replied.  
Normally I'd have a second cup, but this morning my nerves were already jittering to life with anticipation. I didn't need any more caffeine than I'd already had.  
The woman looked like she was going to reply when a crash sounded from upstairs followed by a strangled shout of anger. Was that Naruto? I looked upwards and caught on to the unmistakable signature of his chakra, somewhere in the hallway upstairs. He shouldn't even be awake yet. A few seconds later the boy stumbled down the stairs noisily, rubbing his arm as he entered the kitchen, appearing to be crankier than normal.  
A ghost of a smile appeared on Sasuke's tired face. "What the hell happened to you?"  
Naruto directed his glare at me. "I tripped on some books that somebody left in the middle of the hallway."  
I attempted a smile, but my mind was elsewhere, reeling with the new development. This wasn't supposed to happen. All of them were supposed to be gone before Naruto woke up, and that would lead to him chasing after them, and set all of the events into motion.  
"You can go back to bed Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said. "You have the day off."  
"What?" Naruto cried. "But I wanna go with you guys!"  
Kakashi-sensei shook his head. "No, you need rest."  
"Does Sasuke get to go?"  
"Sasuke's in better condition than you are," Kakashi-sensei reasoned. "Besides, if you stay home you can keep Kasumi company for the day."  
Kakashi-sensei looked to me for help and I bit at my lip uncertainly, my eyes shifting between the two of them. Oh, boy.  
Was it worth it to try and convince Kakashi-sensei that Naruto was safe to go with them? I doubt he'd believe me, and with good reason - I'd be blatantly lying. A good amount of Naruto's chakra had returned to his body but I could tell from the stiffness in his movements that he was indeed feeling the effects of fatigue. His face, arms, and probably legs, were also marred with scratches and scrapes from falling through the trees and taking some hard hits on the ground.  
The only reason he was able to move right now, and eventually fight, was because of his sheer stubbornness and refusal to listen to his body.  
Even then, would that work out right? If Naruto went to the bridge right away, nobody would be there to help save Tsunami. I had no choice but to improvise.  
"He's right Naruto," I said slowly, carefully thinking my words through. "You should give your body a break."  
The boy groaned, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. "No fair," he huffed.  
"You can come tomorrow," Kakashi-sensei amended. "But today you need to just take it easy."  
Making the changes left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt wrong. For all I know, things would have ended off better had I just let things play out this way, but I doubted it. I wrung my hands nervously in my lap.  
"Alright boy, are you ready?" Tazuna grunted. "We should leave soon."  
Sasuke had an empty plate sitting in front of him. The sleep had faded from his eyes, replaced with their usual sharp alertness. The boy nodded and pushed his chair back. "Yeah."  
"Go grab anything you might need and then meet us outside. It's a good half an hour to forty-five minute walk to the bridge site, so we need to get going," Kakashi-sensei ordered.  
He stood and made his way up the stairs, quickly retrieving some basics: a few kunai, tags, and a circle of wire. These were the three things most shinobi never left the house without no matter what they specialized in.  
When Sasuke entered the room again Kakashi-sensei hopped out of his chair to stretch his arms above his head with a cat-like yawn. He let his arms fall back at his side and I saw him sticking his hands in his pockets, already bored enough that he was tempted to pull out his stupid book. Tazuna also got up, giving Tsunami a kiss on the top of her head on his way towards the door.  
"We'll be back before sundown," Tazuna said, his hand resting on the doorknob. "Maybe sooner with how close the bridge is to being done."  
"Be careful," Tsunami said, her eyebrows knit together and her eyes brimming with concern.  
"You know I will," the old man said.  
I watched them file out the door with a grim expression. The chance that things wouldn't work out the way they were supposed to set a heavy feeling in my chest like there were weights sitting atop it. I doubted that feeling would ever go away for as long as I lived my life here. An uneasy breath passed across my lips.  
It wouldn't be long now. At the table, both boys seemed to have fully woken up, chattering away about something that I wasn't paying attention to.  
"What is it?"  
"What's what?" I asked, not taking my eyes off the door.  
"There's something wrong, I can see it in your face," Tsunami said. "You look… worried."  
I shook my head with pursed lips. "It's nothing, really, just a bit of a bad feeling."  
"Do you think something's happening at the bridge?" she asked worriedly.  
"Maybe, maybe not," I said with a noncommittal shrug. "It's just a gut feeling, there's no substance to it."  
She didn't seem to be convinced but she let it slide, gathering up the dishes from the table instead of continuing the conversation. Naruto seemed to have cheered up a little but he was sitting on the edge of his seat, leaning in the direction of the door.  
I set my elbows on the table, resting my chin in my hand. Well, it was now or never.  
"How bad do you want to go to the bridge, Naruto?" I asked.  
His head perked up. "Really bad, but Kakashi-sensei already said I can't go."  
"Come here."  
He shuffled over to the seat beside me and sat down in it, looking at me expectantly.  
I didn't want to use up too much of my chakra just in case I needed it later on to heal somebody, but I could spare enough to get him into better condition. I healed up the scratches littering his skin and pulled out some of the stiffness in his muscles.  
"How does that feel?" I asked.  
"A lot better! You think I can go now?"  
"If you really want, you can tell Kakashi-sensei that I gave you the okay," I said.  
He needed to leave soon if he was going to get far enough into the forest to see the marks left by the henchmen and make it back in time. He bounced out of his seat and pumped his fist in the air, cheering. I could still detect the soreness in his movements but there was an improvement.  
"Are you sure about this?" Tsunami asked. "Your sensei said he should take the day off."  
"Taking days off isn't really Naruto's style," I said. "Besides, you were already planning to sneak off, weren't you?"  
He blushed. "No!"  
"Liar."  
"Okay maybe I was, but I only wanted to go and make sure everything was going alright, then I was going to come back!" he defended.  
"Sure, whatever. Just get going and you might be able to catch them."  
"Thanks Kasu!" he shouted, bounding out the door without another word.  
That was a start at least. I took the opportunity to grab some stuff. I reached back at my crutches, pulling them towards me and using the table to help stand from my chair.  
Having no weapons on me when I knew there was a fight coming just didn't sit right with me. Regardless of whether or not I was planning on participating in them, I still wanted the comfort of being well armed should the need arise. It was just instinct at this point, a urge I doubt I'd ever get rid of - not that I really ever wanted to.  
I made my way down the hall and to where Kakashi-sensei had stashed all of my supplies that were potentially dangerous, well out of reach of anybody else at the house. These weren't the kinds of things that I wanted falling into the wrong hands. I opened the first room on my right, leaving the door ajar behind me and going straight to the far left corner of the room, carefully dropping to my knees.  
If I hadn't known the trap door was there, I might not have noticed it. The area where the panels could be lifted fit seamlessly with the rest of the flooring. Most houses in this world seemed to be built like this, with at least one or two little nooks and crannys that could be used to stash important items or money, created with shinobi in mind.  
I lifted up the wood and pulled out some of my kunai, senbon, and my poison belt. I let the sun shine on the blades of the kunai and the edges of them glinted with a thin poisoned coating. All that I had left were the paralyzing kunai but that wouldn't be a problem if I found myself in a situation of having to fight, not that I planned on doing so.  
On the edge of my senses I felt Inari leaving the kitchen and walking up the stairs to the top level of the house. From what I could tell Tsunami was still in the kitchen, just as everything was supposed to happen. I slipped the belt onto my waist overtop my shirt and slid the kunai and senbon into spare slots on the belt, reaching back for my crutches and pulling myself off of the ground.  
I moved my shirt to cover everything and went back into the kitchen.  
"Since I have the day off I'm going to work on some poisons," I said to Tsunami. "I'll be out in the forest if you need to find me."  
The woman smiled. "Alright, be careful!"  
I turned and walked out the door, closing it behind me and leaning on it heavily. My work here was done, now I just had to hope that I'd done this right. I got a decent distance from the house and sat myself down against a tree and waited.  
My blood was speeding through my veins, pounding in my ears like the beats of a drum. I kept my senses trained on the forest around me waiting for the two henchmen's chakra signatures to show themselves against the backdrop of the trees. Civilian chakra signatures were faint, but they did exist, you just had to be looking for one to see it.  
Five or ten anxious minutes passed before I felt their signatures lighting up on my radar. They were coming from a short ways to my left, and they were coming on quick. I would be out of their line of sight from where I sat, easily disguised by the foliage in front of me.  
I had no plans of stopping them from breaking into the house.  
There were a few reasons for this. First and foremost, it needed to happen for the plot to continue as it was supposed to. For right now the goal was to keep the timeline on the track that I knew it was meant to follow originally. Secondly, it was important for Inari to save his mother - or at least attempt to. He needed to do this to prove to himself that he could. His development as a person hinged on this breakthrough to lead him onto the right path.  
This was really the safest route, even if not everybody survived.  
The two men broke through the treeline and made their way towards the house, one of the men advancing with his sword drawn. He disappeared from my view and I heard the crash of wood being smashed to splinters.  
The rest of the exchange was inaudible save for a few shouted, desperate words. I clenched my fists in my lap and waited. I knew it had to happen but that didn't make it any easier to listen to.  
Then Tsunami was led out of the house, her hands bound behind her back, tears streaming down her face, her face set in determination. The man in the hat led her by a rope while his friend beside him cackled like a villain straight out of some cheesy old movie.  
"Oh don't you worry your pretty little head," the one with the eyepatch said. "We're gonna take real good care of ya."  
Tsunami stopped, turning her nose up at him in disgust.  
The other one tugged on the rope. "Come on, keep walking," he sneered.  
Inari burst out of the house, running down the dock towards them. "Stop!" he cried.  
All of them turned to look at the little boy. Tsunami gasped, looking torn between anger and anguish at the sight of her son. The other two men simply smirked at him.  
"Well, well," the eyepatch man said. "If it ain't the little pipsqueak from before."  
"Inari!" Tsunami shouted.  
"Oh how cute, you've come to save your mama, isn't that right?" the eyepatch man asked sardonically.  
"You better get away from my mom!" Inari screamed, charging forward towards the men in a stupidly courageous fashion.  
"Inari, No!"  
"This kid isn't the sharpest tool in the shed," the man scoffed, shifting his sword from out of his scabbard.  
"Let's just get rid of him," the other said, also pulling out his weapon. "He's getting annoying."  
"If you so much as touch him I swear - "  
"Just shut up," the man in the hat drawled, smacking her across the face hard enough to send her to the ground.  
I winced as she smacked against the wood of the dock.  
Inari cried in outrage. The two men turned their swords towards Tsunami, or at least what they thought was Tsunami. A small grin tugged at my lips. I could feel Naruto's unmistakeable chaotic chakra in the vicinity as he worked the substitution jutsu to life.  
Their swords slashed at the body but instead of slicing the woman's torso they cut a log into three large chunks that fell lifelessly to the ground with a thud. Naruto launched into the scuffle and snatched Inari up across his shoulder and in his other arm carried Tsunami to safety on the other side of the docks.  
They stood in silence as they processed what happened.  
"Substitution jutsu?" one of the men asked.  
"Sorry, it looks I'm a little bit late," Naruto said. "Isn't that how heroes normally show up though, all late and dramatic and stuff?"  
"What, Naruto?" Inari muttered in confusion.  
"'Course it's me!" Naruto laughed. "You did great Inari! If you hadn't charged like that I wouldn't have had enough time to save your mom. Since they were distracted I was able to use a really wicked jutsu and make sure she was safe."  
"How'd you know to come back?"  
"I was going to the bridge but I saw a dead boar and a bunch of cut up trees like there'd been somebody with a sword. All of it led back to the house so I followed it back here," he explained. He scratched his head and gave a thumbs up like the idiot he was. "Cool, right?"  
"That was kinda smart," Inari acknowledged.  
"This one is more annoying that the other," the eyepatch guy remarked.  
"I think he's one of the stupid ninja brats Tazuna hired," the man in the hat replied.  
"Let's just kill him."  
"Sounds like a plan."  
The two ran towards Naruto and Inari. Without even looking, Naruto tossed out some stars that the men easily reflected with their swords.  
"That's not gonna work on us kid," eyepatch guy sneered.  
"That's what you think!" Naruto cackled.  
Where the stars were two shadow clone Narutos appeared out of thin air and kicked the men in the back of the head. Both men were knocked out instantly. Even the most inexperienced shinobi can take out a civilian with ease and when somebody underestimates a shinobi it only makes their job easier.  
"Whoa, that was awesome!" Inari said with a wild grin.  
"It was, wasn't it?" Naruto replied.  
"You were almost as good as a real ninja."  
"You little idiot that's what I've been trying to tell you this whole time, I am a real ninja!"  
The two boys dissolved into laughter. It was the first time I'd seen Inari actually smile since we had been here. After they recovered, they wasted no time in untying Tsunami and binding the other two henchmen up so they couldn't get away. They went a bit overkill, tying the two men up with so much rope that their entire torsos were covered, but at least the knots were sturdy enough to hold the two no matter how much resistance they put up.  
Naruto looked around, his eyebrows knit together. "Where's Kasu?" he inquired.  
"I don't know," Inari said. "I guess she went somewhere before the guys arrived."  
"Do you think she went to the bridge also?"  
"I heard her say something to mom before she left but I don't remember what she said."  
"She must be out in the forest somewhere working on stuff, I hope she's alright."  
"She's a ninja too, she can take care of herself, right?"  
"Yeah, she beats me in fights all the time, so I'm sure she's fine."  
I couldn't hold back a short, quiet laugh.  
Naruto and Inari moved over to sit on the edge of the dock, letting their feet dangle off the edge. They didn't say anything for a little bit. I hoped Naruto would get going soon though, as they were sitting here, there was a fight going on at the bridge.  
"Hey, sorry about yesterday," Naruto said suddenly.  
"Huh?"  
"It… uh… was a bit mean of me to call you a coward and stuff." He said it with a laugh, but the apology was sincere. "I know that it's not true now after seeing you be all brave like that before."  
Inari's eyes welled up with tears. Naruto's eyes widened in confusion. The little boy rubbed at his eyes. "No, I said I wouldn't cry," he said, his voice wobbling. "I don't want you to make fun of me again and call me a baby!"  
Naruto smiled and ruffled the other boys hair. "Nah, you're just happy, nothing wrong with that."  
"What?"  
"It's not always bad to cry. Sometimes we cry, but it's okay, 'cause it's just the good kind of crying."  
Inari only seemed to sob harder. The two sat like that for a few minutes until Inari's cries slowed down enough that he could talk. Naruto stretched his arms above his head and stood up, rolling down the legs of his pants again.  
"I'm leaving you in charge now."  
"Where are you going?"  
"I still gotta get to the bridge," Naruto said. "I get the feeling something bad is happening, so I gotta go be a hero there just like I was here!"  
"Okay!"  
Naruto threw a wave behind his back and ran off in the direction of the bridge, blindly charging into battle. I waited a few minutes, watching Inari. The boy seemed lost on what to do. He sat by his mother, uncertainty tainting his movements. He went to put a hand on her forehead but pulled it away instead.  
I grabbed my crutches and hauled myself to my feet, limping towards the young boy and his mother, already thinking about what I should say. Lying to a little kid wasn't something I looked forward to doing but there wasn't much else I could do.  
As I approached, he lifted his head.  
"Kasumi, there you are!"  
"What happened?" I asked.  
He went through all of what happened, lingering on the part where Naruto jumped in to save the day, his eyes full of awe. Whether he meant to or not Naruto lit a fire in Inari that I could only assume hadn't been there since his father died.  
I knelt down next to Tsunami and lit my hand with medical chakra. I gently took her wrists in my hands and healed away all of the marks that were left by the ropes. I checked over the rest of her body but left her unconscious. Trying to heal head injuries wasn't a good idea - if I messed around up there I could just end up making it worse.  
"She's alright, don't worry," I said, moving away from her. "She just needs to rest."  
He breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good." He looked up at me. "What are you going to do?"  
That was a damn good question. What was I going to do? There wasn't any point in me staying here, there was nothing for me to do. It was Inari's role to gather up the villagers, not mine. That wasn't something I wanted to mess around with - I'd done far more changing and rearranging than I'd have liked to already.  
The bridge, however, was a safe bet. The chances of me making it to the bridge before the end of the fight were slim at best. If I walked, I'd end up at the bridge long after the fight ended, so there wouldn't be much point of even going. If I tried to tree hop, a terrible idea, really, it would take me close to ten minutes, and I might make it for the very end.  
Plus, a large part of me wanted to go; I had a bad feeling about what was happening. Things mostly went the way they were supposed to, but I couldn't shake the idea that something was wrong. I wanted to go and make sure everything was alright. I hadn't planned on going before to avoid being a target, but at this point, that wasn't a risk anymore, because if I even made it in time, I'd be the last thing on anybody's mind.  
I hoped, at least.  
"I think I'm going to do something stupid," I muttered.  
"What?"  
"I have a bad feeling about what's going on there. I can't help fight but I can try and help with my medical ninjutsu."  
"Well… what should I do?"  
"That's up to you. Do what you think you have to, Inari."  
I left it at that, turning in the direction of the bridge and staring at the treeline. I'd never tried to tree hop like this before. I'd have to go slower than normal, though the biggest worry was how in the world I was going to keep my balance.  
Thanks to the years I spent weight training I was more than capable of doing this with only one leg strength wise. The problem was going to be the landings and getting past the first couple of jumps. After the first few, the momentum would easily carry me through the rest of the way - getting up there to start was going to be a bit of a challenge though.  
I took a deep breath and steeled myself. Okay. I could do it. Oh God, this was stupid.  
I poured chakra into my leg and arms, giving a massive push off the ground. I soared through the air, thankfully in the direction of a branch.  
"Oh shit, oh shit!"  
Shakily, I managed to stick the landing, using more chakra to keep myself from sliding right off of the branch. It was a learning curve. A very sharp, dangerous learning curve, that I was never going to try ever again.  
It ended up taking me a solid two minutes to get through the first few branches but after that I managed to get going at a safe speed, only having a few minor slip ups. I had been going for about five or so minutes when I felt it. I froze, so jarred by the shockwave that I nearly fell off my current branch and tumbled to the ground.  
It was the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra. I remembered it well, from all those years ago when I first felt it send ripples through the air, the night Naruto was born. It was overpowering, assaulting my senses with such force that I had to stop for a moment. Whether it was because I had developed such a sensitive chakra radar or because it was just that powerful that I could feel it miles away, it gave me some form of gauge for what stage the fight was in.  
I was still a ways away from the bridge. Given the amount of time I spent waiting after Naruto left and how long it took me to actually get moving, I still had at least ten minutes until I would be at the bridge. That would probably leave me getting there around the time of Haku's death.  
With that somber thought I shook off the nerves and pushed on.  
As I got closer to the bridge, a thick mist began to form around me that could only be coming from Zabuza. Finding my way through the mist was a challenge, the heavy curls disguising the location so heavily that I ended up having to use the shouting and clashes of metal as my guide. It took me longer than it should have, but I did eventually find my way.  
The killing intent hit me like a brick wall when I approached the bridge. Through the mist I could make out the vague forms of Naruto, Zabuza, and Kakashi-sensei on the far end of the bridge. I was close enough now to be able to make out the words that were being shouted.  
Kakashi-sensei stood poised to strike, and Zabuza's sword lay on the ground. Naruto stood off to the side, his face turned away from me. Just as I approached, Gato also seemed to be arriving. I stayed back where I was to avoid gathering the attention of around me. Tazuna stood a short distance ahead of me. Then I remembered: Sasuke.  
The second I laid eyes on him everything else seemed to fade into the background. I may have not been the biggest fan of his, but his condition brought my heart into my throat. Multiple wounds were bleeding profusely all around his body, his shirt slashed to pieces, and a bright crimson pool of blood was forming under his chest. I moved over to him and dropped my crutches, getting down on the ground and grabbing hold of him from underneath his arms.  
Using my good leg to push us back I was able to move him backwards, not stopping until we were far enough away that I was completely sure we would be out of the view of anybody on the bridge before I went to work.  
The trip to the bridge had taken more out of me than I had thought it would, but I'd have to push away the fatigue.  
I lit my hand up with chakra and did a quick diagnosis to make sure that there wasn't anything besides the wounds to worry about. I set my hand against one of the worst wounds on his chest, beginning the process of halting the bleeding it when his hand suddenly shot up and grabbed my wrist in an iron grip. I let out a short gasp of surprise. He was conscious.  
"It's me," I murmured. "Just calm down, I'm trying to help you."  
He glared up at me, but there was no heat in his eyes. He was scared and in an unbearable amount pain. I'd probably do the same in his position. He let his hand drop and I sat back a little. Before I did anything else, I needed to make him a bit more comfortable at least. My hand went to my belt and I pulled out one of the remaining bottles of pain medication, shakily pouring out a cap of it and holding it up to his mouth.  
I set my other hand beneath his neck and held his head up. When I put the cap against his lips he held them firmly shut, his lips set in a firm line.  
"Okay, you can resist me and make me force you to take the pain meds, or you can just make this easier for both of us and just open your fucking lips," I hissed. "Now is so not the time to be stubborn."  
Amazingly that worked and he stopped resisting, letting me pour the pink liquid into his open mouth. It took a minute for the meds to kick in but when they did I felt his body loosen up. By far the worst was a wound on the right side of his chest that was causing the majority of the bleeding. It was no wonder they thought he was dead, he's sure as hell lost enough blood to be. Him being alive still was a miracle in itself.  
I pulled off what was left of his shirts and began ripping off some of the cleaner parts of it to use as makeshift bandages. Before anything else, I yanked out all the senbon that I could see. The pain meds made this a much less painful experience for Sasuke than it would have been otherwise.  
When I was satisfied I got all of them I healed up as much as I could on the large slash wound. I'd never had to try and heal up anything close to this, so everything I was doing came straight from what I had read in the medical ninjutsu books. I went from the outside towards the inside, mending the skin together as quickly as I could.  
It was a thin layer, nothing that would hold up for long. All I wanted right now though was to keep him from bleeding out. I moved onto the next wound on his chest, doing the same thing. I was basically just putting bandaids on a wound that needed stitches. Multiple layers under what I had healed were still torn and would need time to heal, but as long as he didn't move around too much what I was doing now could keep him going until we got back to the village.  
I got to the third wound when spots started dancing across my eyes. I had to stop soon, my chakra reserves were almost empty. I managed to get the last wound mostly healed before I made myself leave it to avoid passing out myself. Sasuke stared at me through blank eyes; the entire time I was healing him he had been watching me.  
From the pile at my side I grabbed the biggest piece of fabric and wound it around the biggest wounds to cover them just in case the skin broke open again. I tied them off with a secure knot and sat back for a last examination.  
Only five minutes had passed, maybe less, but already some of his colour was returning. Shinobi tended to heal faster than civilians, and the work I did would speed up the process - for now, he was in the clear for now. None of his other injuries were major enough to cause worry. There were some nasty cuts and bruises littering his skin from where the ice sliced away at him, they just weren't bleeding enough to be a serious risk against his health.  
Not that I could do anything about them if they were. I had used up the majority of my chakra now, leaving me struggling to stay conscious. I was going to sleep well tonight.  
"This is the best I can do for right now," I said. "Right now the skin keeping you alive is delicate and if you move too much you'll break it, so don't move around too much. I'm going to go and see what's going on with the fight."  
He nodded. From the way his eyelids were fluttering, it was obvious he was struggling to stay awake. Once I went back to the fight he'd probably conk out due to exhaustion.  
I left him there, shuffling on the ground towards the bridge again to see where the fight had progressed to. The mist had only thickened in my absence, obscuring much of the bridge. I used the railing of the bridge to haul myself to my feet, watching the ordeal unfold from a safe distance.  
Gato was standing in the middle of the bridge, leaning on his cane with a smug grin. His cronies gathered behind him in what was likely meant to be an intimidating show of strength. Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and Zabuza stood opposite of him. Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza were covered in blood splatters from their fight but Kakashi-sensei had clearly come out on top. Even from where I stood i could tell that Zabuza was heavily injured.  
Zabuza's bandages around his neck were ripped and hung loosely around his collar bone. His shoulders were hunched, his arms hanging uselessly at his side. "What is all of this, Gato?" he rumbled. "What are you doing here with all of these thugs?"  
"It seems that there's been a… slight change in plans," he said. "And I'm here to not so regretfully inform you that these new plans involve you lying dead on the bridge."  
"What?"  
"You're costing me more than you're getting for me, Zabuza. I don't like that," Gato said. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get rid of some of these thugs too, so see if you can at least manage to kill some of them, demon of the mist."  
Kakashi-sensei sat back, one knee propped up while the other was planted firmly against the ground. Naruto was shaking.  
"Our fight is over, Kakashi," Zabuza said. "I'm no longer Gato's employee, so Tazuna is safe. We have no reason to fight."  
"I suppose you're right about that," Kakashi-sensei replied.  
Gato strolled forward, his cane clicking against the ground as he moved.  
"Oh, that reminds me," he said, his voice taking on an angered edge. "This annoying little punk broke my arm! It's time I repay you for the deed."  
The man pulled his leg back and kicked Haku's corpse in the face, jolting it forward. Naruto cried out in outrage and Zabuza's body tensed up. I narrowed my eyes. What I wouldn't give to knock that disgusting little slimeball of a human being off his feet.  
Gato poked the boy's face with his cane disdainfully. "Too bad he's not alive to feel it."  
"Get away from him!" Naruto shouted, charging forward.  
"Hey, enough!" Kakashi-sensei said sharply, catching him by the waist and restraining him from going any further. "Don't be an idiot."  
"What about you, Zabuza?" Naruto demanded of the other man. "Are you just going to let him do that?"  
"Shut up," Zabuza growled. "Haku's dead, it doesn't matter."  
"What? So you can just stand there and watch him get treated like a dog? You and Haku traveled together for years! Doesn't he mean anything to you at all?"  
"You don't understand anything. It's the way of shinobi, I used him until he had no more use, just as Gato did to me. All that means anything to me is that I no longer have a tool for my using."  
"If you really mean that, you're more of an asshole than I thought you were," Naruto snarled.  
Kakashi-sensei put a hand on his arm and pulled him back. "Stop, Naruto. He's not our enemy anymore."  
Naruto yanked his arm away from our sensei's grasp. "Shut up!"  
Zabuza looked back at the boy, his cold gaze as sharp as the knives hanging at his side.  
"Anybody who can say something like that is my enemy! You ungrateful bastard! After everything he did for you. You were the most important thing to him, you were his world. He meant nothing to you, nothing at all! He gave up everything for you," the boy shouted, his voice cracking. I didn't have to see his face to know that he was crying. "If this is what happens when you become stronger I don't want it. I don't want to ever be like this. He wasted his life just for your stupid dream. You tossed him aside like he was nothing. 'A broken tool'. That's just… man, that's so wrong."  
The raw emotion in Naruto's voice had tears prickling at the corner of my eyes. I clenched my jaw, turning my eyes down to the ground.  
"You talk too much," Zabuza said. The tremble in his voice contradicted the anger in his voice, signaling that the blonde's words hit home. "I don't need to hear words like that. Haku was soft and kind; he felt pain and sorrow. Damn it all, your words are making me feel them too. Those emotions are useless."  
He swung his arm up, ripping away at what was left of the bandages wrapped around his mouth. The fabric drifted down to the ground. Gato's face was clouded with uncertainty and annoyance, his grip on his cane tightening as he came face to face with the sharp toothed smile of the demon of the mist.  
"Shinobi spend their lives avoiding human emotion. Escaping their humanity. I'd done well with that before now, boy. Your words have me failing," he said. Zabuza stuck his hand out in Naruto's direction. "Give me your kunai."  
Naruto drew it from his holster and tossed it through the air. "Here."  
It flipped over itself as it soared towards Zabuza. The man moved his head back to catch the handle of the blade in his mouth. He set his shoulders defiantly before flying launching himself forward, flying forward.  
Gato stumbled back. His cane fell from his hand and he hurried backwards, eyes wide. "Stop him!" he shouted as he disappeared into the crowd of hired hands he had brought with him.  
The men parted for their boss, clumping back together once he got behind them. They didn't seem scared of Zabuza, instead chuckling as he advanced towards them, words of disbelief floating up from amongst their ranks.  
"What does he think he's doing?"  
"He's suicidal."  
"What an idiot!"  
One hefted his jagged sword, a cocky grin on his face. "This one's mine!"  
Underestimating a shinobi was a fatal mistake.  
Zabuza effortlessly moved through the ranks, slicing apart anybody who stood in his way. It was a deadly dance. A few managed to get in a hits, and as Zabuza came out on the other side of the group, there were swords sticking out from his back, their handles pointing straight up in the air. He burst forward and jabbed the knife straight into the chest of Gato.  
Blood dripped down onto the cold concrete ground as the two men stood frozen in time. Gato groaned, coughing up gooey blobs of crimson onto his hand, staring down at his palm in shock. The henchmen Gato brought with him snapped into action and within seconds at least a dozen swords were shoved through Zabuza's torso. He swayed on his feet, doubling over from the weight.  
"You fool," Gato wheezed. "If you're so eager to join the punk then go ahead, but I'm not going with you. Not this time."  
Zabuza managed a halting laugh. "I won't be joining Haku, not where he's gone - that's one place that I cannot follow him to."  
Somehow, Zabuza took a step towards Gato. "Stay back… you get away from me!" Gato said.  
"You and me both are going to the other place," Zabuza said. "I can't think of a more fitting place for a demon ninja, can you? I'm told there are many demons down there of all shapes and sizes, I'll fit right in, but you… you're in for a long, painful eternity!"  
With one last show of strength Zabuza tossed the knife back into his mouth and slashed at Gato's chest relentlessly, pushing him closer and closer to the edge of the bridge with each swipe. He took one last, massive stab at the man, finally sending him careening off the bridge and into the water. There was a splash as he connected with the water.  
Zabuza turned and the crowd of men parted for him with a single glare of his eyes. This time, there would be no underestimating the demon of the mist. He unclenched his jaw and the bloodied kunai clattered from his mouth and onto the ground. He took one step, then another, and another, but his body had hit its limit, his knees buckling under the strain. A shuttering breath passed his lips and he sat on his knees, staring at the body of Haku, unable to move another inch.  
"Haku… this is goodbye… at last… I never did thank you… forgive me…"  
Finally his body gave out. Zabuza's eyes rolled back and he fell face first onto the bridge. Naruto turned his head to the side, eyes squeezed shut.  
"Don't look away," Kakashi-sensei whispered. "When you live your life as a warrior, this is the ultimate end that you'll face."  
It was a sad scene.  
Their story was tragic. Zabuza was by no means a good person, but deep down, it was obvious that he had cared for Haku more than he himself understood, and it took the young boy's death for him to realize that, too late for both of them.  
"Well now what?" one of the men from the crowd demanded. "Gato's dead, so we ain't got no pay now!"  
"Hey, hey, hey. This party ain't over yet," another one said. "I don't think we'll be leaving here empty handed."  
Kakashi-sensei looked up sharply from his position on the ground, drawing his shoulders back.  
"Why don't we just hit up the village for all it's got, eh boys?" a man shouted, raising his sword into the air.  
All of the men followed suit, raising their blades into the air and hollering in agreement.  
"Not good," Kakashi-sensei murmured.  
"Come on Kakashi-sensei, you must got a jutsu that can take care of this, right?" Naruto asked.  
"I don't have any chakra left to use," the man replied.  
The men swarmed forward in a flurry of metal and battle cries, oblivious to what lay behind the mist on the other side of the bridge. Inari had done it. The village rallied behind the little boy, ready to finally protect themselves for a change. He looked over at me, grinning, and fired a single arrow into the air, watching proudly as it landed at the foot of the crowd.  
Collectively the men looked up, through the mist, to the villagers.  
They were by no means warriors. Armed with pitchforks, paddles, shovels, spears, and pickaxes, they were a ragtag militia with their livelihoods on the line. They didn't need to be trained to fight, for what they lacked in talent they made up in fighting spirit and courage.  
"Not so fast, buddy!" a man near the front shouted. "You'll have to go through us first."  
Naruto and Kakashi-sensei spun around.  
"Inari!" Naruto exclaimed.  
The young boy laughed, raising his crossbow along with the rest of the villagers. "Heroes showing up at the last minute, just like you."  
"They're all here…" Tazuna said in surprise. "The whole village."  
For the first time since I got here, Naruto and Kakashi-sensei seemed to take notice of me. I gave a small wave, but I was ready to drop. Both of them didn't say anything to me instead focusing on the more important matter on hand - the second battle.  
Naruto formed his favourite hand signs and cried, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"  
Five more Narutos lined up beside him, all wearing a characteristic grin.  
Not to be shown up by a student of his Kakashi-sensei also formed the same hand sign and repeated the words, only he produced close to twenty clones.  
All at once the clones chorused, "Still wanna fight?"  
As anybody with half a brain would have done the henchmen turned tail and ran, diving off of the side of the bridge in a giant clump, shoving each other out of the way in their rush to get onto their boat. The boat started chugging down the river with some of the men being dragged through the water as they clung to the rope ladder.  
"Victory!"  
All of the villagers who had gathered on the bridge began celebrating, laughing, cheering. The evil was gone from their world. The plague that was Gato would never harm another member of the village, they were finally free. The emotion was contagious. I smiled, watching the awe in Tazuna's face as all of this sunk in for him.  
Kakashi-sensei was ignoring all of this. He had an eye on something else. He walked towards the slack body of Zabuza and knelt down by his face. I moved myself closer to catch what was being said, using the railing for support.  
"I guess it's over," Zabuza said.  
"Yeah."  
"Kakashi, I have a… favor to… ask."  
"What would that be?"  
"Take… me to him. Before I go… I need to see him… again. Just one last time."  
"Sure."  
The villagers had gone silent. Kakashi-sensei pulled out the weapons that were protruding from his back and tossed them aside, scooping up Zabuza and carrying him over to the body. As he did this snow began to float from the sky, small pure white flakes that burned as they landed on my skin, melting upon contact.  
"What? That's impossible!"  
"Snow at this time of the year?"  
Naruto looked up, blinking in confusion.  
Our sensei gently set the man down beside Haku. "Thank you… Kakashi."  
Kakashi-sensei moved away wordlessly, pulling his hitae-ate back down over his eye. He had turned away from the two of them.  
"You were always… by my side… Haku…" Zabuza said. "The least… I can do… is be beside you… at the end."  
The man struggled to raise his hand up to touch the side of Haku's face, his entire body shaking with the effort. Silently, tears streamed down my face, and I raised my free hand up to cover my mouth.  
"I only wish… I could go to where… you have gone. How I want… to join you there…"  
He let out one last breath, the remainder of his life leaving him. I couldn't help but wonder if I had made the right choice in not trying harder to keep these two alive. The chances of it working out were slim to none, I knew that in my gut, but the thought lingered. Was it always going to be like this? Was I always going to end up second guessing my choices?  
"He told me where he came from it was always snowing," Naruto said. "All the time."  
"He had a pure spirit, just like this snow. Who knows, Zabuza? You may be joining him where he's gone," Kakashi-sensei said.  
The villagers slowly milled out, leaving only Inari, Tazuna, and Tsunami remaining. The three of them were gathered a short ways away. By the sounds of it Inari was animatedly explaining everything that had happened after Tazuna left for the bridge this morning, with the odd addition from Tsunami.  
Kakashi-sensei and Naruto both wandered over. Naruto couldn't look me in the eye. The mist had faded away now and from where I stood Sasuke's body was visible. It was then I remembered that in Naruto's mind, our teammate was dead. He hadn't seen me pull the boy away from the fight and heal him up.  
"Kasu…" he cast his eyes down. "I'm sorry."  
"Naruto, watch his chest."  
"What?"  
"Just watch it."  
The slow grin told me that he could discern the rise and fall of Sasuke's chest as he was breathing.  
"No way!"  
"I got here just in time," I said. "If I had been much later he'd have bled out."  
Naruto tackled me in a bear hug and the sudden jolt sent my vision into shades of grey. I fell against him, my legs deciding they were done with holding up my weight, and tried to blink away the splotches. He held on, helplessly looking to our sensei. Kakashi-sensei took me from Naruto's grasp and set me down on the ground.  
"Sorry! What did I do?" he blurted out hurriedly.  
"No that wasn't you," I murmured. "I just… I used too much chakra, I think."  
"What you did is pretty impressive," Kakashi-sensei said.  
"It's a temporary fix," I said. "The chakra I used on him will help encourage his body to heal it but I only managed to mend a few layers of skin over the wounds. If he moves around too much he'll open them up again."  
"Still, considering you've only been doing medical ninjutsu for a few months, you did well."  
"Thanks."  
"How did you know to come here?" Naruto asked me. "Inari said you were out in the forest working on stuff."  
"I was out in the forest, but I forgot my notebooks in the house before I left. I went back to get them and ended up finding Inari with Tsunami outside," I explained. "He told me what happened so I rushed over here right away."  
"Wait, how long ago did you get here?" Kakashi-sensei inquired.  
"I got here when Gato did."  
"It would take you at least an hour to walk here without a broken ankle."  
"I didn't exactly walk here," I murmured.  
He crossed his arms over his chest and heaved a sigh. "Please tell me you didn't tree hop - "  
"I had to get here!" I defended. "And I didn't hurt myself, so it's no big deal."  
"What am I going to do with you three?" he muttered and pinched the bridge of his nose.  
I stuck out my arms in his direction. "Carry me?"  
He rolled his eye but obliged, lifting me up from the ground effortlessly.  
We walked back over to where the other three stood and I instructed Tazuna to carefully pick up Sasuke who had, as I suspected he would, fallen unconscious. It was a slow trip back to Tazuna's house with two of us having to be carried. A bittersweet sense settled in my chest - Haku and Zabuza's story ended in tragedy, yet I had some amount of comfort holding onto the hope that they had indeed ended up together after all.  
.-.-.  
Later that evening, we returned to retrieve the bodies so that they could be buried. With a bit of help I went with them to the spot on the hill that overlooked the valley. I forced myself to stay awake for this. I didn't want to miss this. Everything in my body was screaming at me to let it get some rest, but I wasn't ready.  
Kakashi-sensei dug out the holes and placed the bodies in them. We marked the spots using a wooden cross that had been adorned with flowers for Haku and left the giant sword he wielded shoved into the ground for Zabuza.  
"So this is the ninja way," I muttered, gazing at the graves. "In the end we're all just tools, made to be used when it's most convenient."  
"That's the cold reality of it. It's pointless to get mixed up in whether or not it's right or wrong," Kakashi-sensei said.  
Sasuke was still back at the house resting so it was just Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, and myself up at the grave site.  
"If that's what it means to be a ninja, that's just plain messed up," Naruto said and kicked his foot against the ground. "Why?"  
Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "You learn to deal with it, 'cause if you don't you won't last long as a shinobi."  
"That's dumb. I don't want it to be like that."  
"You can't change it, Naruto."  
"Yes I can. I'm going to work and find my own way. A way that's straight and true, without any regrets! I won't follow any stupid ninja way, I'm going to follow the Naruto way!"  
Kakashi-sensei chuckled and shook his head. He didn't try and convince Naruto otherwise - Naruto was too stubborn to be set off his track. If he was going to make his own way, that's what he'd do, no matter what anybody else said to him. And he'd do it. I'd see to it, if it was the last thing I ever did.  
.-.-.  
We stayed a few more days than I thought we would. After we got back from burying Zabuza and Haku, I knocked out for a couple of days while my body recovered from the extreme amount of chakra I had used. Sasuke was forced to stay in his bed for that long as well to give his body as much of a good of a chance as possible to heal up the wounds he had sustained.  
I couldn't wait to get home. I missed mama, papa, Shika, and Cho more than I could have ever imagined I would have, and I was ready to have this ankle healed up by a professional medic nin. It was going to be a long trip home. Sasuke and I were both too injured to be tree hopping on the way home - a short trip to the bridge had been one thing, but an entire trip home was far too much for me to handle with one leg. As well, Sasuke was still in a somewhat fragile condition, even with those few days to rest and give his body a break.  
I had no doubt that the wounds were going to reopen on the trip home, it was just a matter of how badly that had yet to be determined.  
"We're going to miss you," Tazuna said. He stood at the edge of the bridge to see us off along with Tsunami, Inari, and a few other villagers who had helped build the bridge.  
"We'll come back to visit soon, don't you worry!" Naruto said.  
"You better," Inari said. He was holding back tears, his face scrunched up with the effort. "I'm gonna remember you said that, Naruto!"  
"I promise we will!" Naruto said, also holding off the water works.  
"Have a safe trip," Tsunami said and set a hand on Inari's shoulder.  
"It's okay to cry, Inari," Naruto said.  
"You first!"  
"I'm not going to cry."  
"Yeah you are!"  
"Nu-uh!"  
"Yeah!"  
There was a stare down between the two of them. I hit Naruto on the back of the head with the top part of my crutch and he turned away defiantly before the two of them burst into a messy fit of sobs.  
"We should get moving," Kakashi-sensei said. "We need to give ourselves as much time as possible to travel during the day."  
With a final round of farewells we set off on our way, heading down the bridge and in the direction of our village. Naruto launched into his plan to have Iruka buy both of us ramen as celebration of our first real completed mission. I let his chatter wash over me contently. It was over. For now, all of us were safe, and I was going to savor the peace while it lasted.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWELVE  
.-.-.  
The trip home from the Land of Waves didn't get off to a good start. All of us were eager to get home after being gone this long, but the trip was slow going. The fact that I still had to use crutches combined with my shorter legs meant that I was significantly slower than the other three and found myself practically running just to keep up with them. They did try to go slower to make it easier on me but I was still unable to keep up.  
I huffed out a breath, trailing a few feet behind them. We'd been walking for three or four hours and I could feel the fatigue starting to settle in my muscles, tight and heavy. Up ahead I could hear Naruto going on about something that I couldn't make out. Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke were tuning him out, not that he noticed or probably cared.  
"Can you guys just… slow down a bit?" I called. "Short legs over here."  
"Huh?" Naruto stopped and turned to look over his shoulder at me.  
"I can't keep up, you guys are going too fast for me," I said.  
"Then go faster," Sasuke said. He had his hands shoved in his pockets and had so far recovered well from his injuries, though from the way he was moving I could tell he was still in some amount of pain.  
I scowled at him, tempted to smack him in the face with my crutches.  
Naruto scratched his head with a laugh. "Sorry Kasu, didn't think we were going that fast."  
"We're not, she's just slow," Sasuke said and smirked.  
"And you're just an asshole," I snapped.  
Kakashi-sensei sighed, moving towards me. He stopped in front of me and pivoted on the spot, turning his back to me, squatting down with holding his arms out at his side. "Jump on."  
Naruto and Sasuke stopped to wait for our sensei. Sasuke scrunched his nose up in annoyance at the interruption.  
"You promise you're not just going to drop me?" I asked skeptically.  
"Yes, now hurry up, kid. We need to keep going."  
I held my crutches in one hand and used the other to hold onto his neck as he stood up again, tucking his hands under my legs to keep me in place as he carried me back up to where the boys were. I glanced over at him and Naruto reached over to grab the crutches from me, slinging them over his shoulder.  
As much as it sucked to have a broken ankle, I could get used to being carried around all day.  
I let my head fall forward, resting on Kakashi-sensei's shoulder; the sun was shining, a comfortable warmness against my skin. The Land of Waves normally had much more rainy weather, comparable to London in my old world, but right now they were in a dry patch, trading in their drizzling skies for gorgeous clear ones. Thank Kami because trudging home the long way would have been miserable if we had to do it in the pouring rain.  
After a few minutes I began to relax enough that the boys seemed to assume that I had fallen asleep from the hushed tone their voices took on. Sleep sounded very nice, really. They moved along at a steady pace for a while and I drifted off into a comfortable partial sleep, dozing for a while - it was hard to tell exactly how long, but when I rejoined the world of the living the sun still sat high in the sky.  
I hadn't realized how tired I had been before I fell asleep. My eyes drew opened, slowly, hesitantly, only to be burned by the sun. I hissed out a cranky, "Oh, fuck."  
Kakashi-sensei shifted my weight in his arms and turned his head so that he was staring at me from the corner of his eye. "Look who's awake."  
I grumbled out something unintelligible, rubbing at my eyes in annoyance. Yeah, that hurt.  
Other than my burning eyes though everything else felt significantly better than it had. Besides my ankle, at least. The dull ache was worse but that was just the pain meds beginning to wear off as they normally did around this time of the day. When we stopped next I'd have to take another dose, whenever that was.  
"What time is it?" I murmured.  
"Three in the afternoon," Kakashi-sensei replied. "You've been out for a few hours."  
"How far have you guys gone?"  
Kakashi-sensei hummed a little, then shrugged. "No idea."  
Figures. I rolled my eyes and stretched out my legs a little bit, emitting a cat-like yawn. The forests looked to be about the same, not really a surprise. We were going to be in forests for most of our trip home aside from the odd village or two on the way home.  
I glanced over at the boys. Naruto was amazingly quiet, though it was possible he had just gotten bored of talking to nobody, because he was still sporting his ever present smile. He was bobbing his head along to a song he was singing to himself, too quiet for me to hear. It was when I turned my attention to Sasuke, who was walking a short ways behind the other two, that I immediately got worried.  
He wasn't the type to have a relaxed posture - however, the tightness in his shoulders and the stiff jerkiness of his movements were a definite sign of pain. His complexion also was more pale than usual. It held an ashy tint that couldn't mean anything good.  
"Stop."  
"What?" Kakashi-sensei asked, probably able to sense the tenseness of my muscles.  
Naruto turned over to look at us curiously and his hands fell from his pockets.  
"Put me down," I requested. Kakashi-sensei did so and kept a hold on my arm to help me keep my balance.  
Sasuke had stopped in his tracks as well, the scowl on his face deepening, his eyes taking on a weary appearance, clearly not in a good mood. His shirt was clean of blood so I at least knew that if his wounds had opened like I suspected they had, it wasn't bad enough that they had soaked through the wrappings on them. I wasn't sure how much bandaging we even had left at this point. I had made sure to pack extras before we left so hopefully that would last us.  
"What are you looking at me for?" the boy asked defensively.  
I didn't reply, instead just motioning him over towards me with my free hand. From how he was acting he knew that his wounds had reopened and had opted not to say anything. If they weren't a direct risk to his life, I would have just left him in his pain, since he clearly didn't want my help. Right now, though, when we were on a mission, and in a situation where we could be attacked at an moment, I couldn't just leave it.  
He closed the distance in a couple of seconds, still staring at me. "Well?"  
"Take your shirt off," I said.  
"Excuse me?"  
"Oh, come off it," I replied. "I need to see how bad they are."  
"You can't be serious."  
"You know I am, asshole."  
"You can't tell me what to do," he said.  
"I'm trying to help you," I said through grit teeth.  
"I never asked for your help."  
"Too bad."  
It was like a flashback to a few days ago, during the tree climbing practice. The same kind of conversation being carried over into a much more serious situation. If that was how this was going to work, I wasn't too optimistic on the outcome.  
Naruto and Kakashi-sensei had both caught onto what was happening now.  
I could see the wheels in Sasuke's head spinning, trying to figure out whether or not he could weasel his way out of this. His stubbornness was warring against the logical parts of his thought process. The logic won out because to my surprise he grudgingly placed his hands on the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, taking the jacket off with it.  
My suspicions were right - in the worst way possible. The bandages wound around his chest were spotted with blood, meaning that they had opened enough to soak through the other many layers protecting the raw skin. Even if I hadn't said anything it wouldn't have been long before it would have started leaking onto his shirt.  
One day this stubbornness would be the death of him.  
Naruto's eyes had gone wide and Kakashi-sensei's grip on my arm had tightened. The thing about havings wounds like these were the risks. It wasn't just about whether whatever pierced the skin hit anything vital on it's way through, there were other things that could kill just as easily if they weren't treated right away. One of which was infection. The other, which was what had me concerned in Sasuke's case, was blood loss.  
Initially Sasuke lost a lot of blood. Shinobi had a higher base healing rate than most other people, certainly anybody from my world, which is probably the only reason Sasuke didn't die from his wounds when he got them. In the show he was able to just brush himself off and walk away. I had no idea what it was that changed this time around, but whatever happened nearly killed him.  
Before we started back he had improved with the constant checking in and changing of the bandages, and my healing them once I was well enough to. It was no substitute for a proper medic-nin but it had helped.  
Now, after hours of traveling, he was struggling, whether he'd admit it or not.  
I had work to do. "Sit down," I said. My tone was brittle from nerves. In a softer tone I added, "Please."  
He did so and I followed him down with a bit of help from Kakashi-sensei. I sat on my butt, my good leg folded beneath me and my other stretched out in front of me. It wasn't ideal but it'd have to do.  
Carefully, I unwound the bandages, one by one, to get a better look at what I was working with - it wasn't as bad as I had been expecting it to be. There were no signs of infection and one of the more severe wounds still had a somewhat sound layer of skin holding it from bleeding. The worst wound that stretched across his chest had almost completely reopened, blood seeping from broken skin and dripping down his chest without the bandages there to soak it up.  
I exhaled deeply. I had to resist the urge to shout at him - heal first, lecture later.  
We had some time so I decided use more than just my own medical ninjutsu to help save what little chakra I had at my disposal. I bit at the edge of my thumb and pressed my palms against the ground, focusing on the little fox that I needed.  
Keiko popped into existence in front of me with a small puff of smoke. "Hello again, Mistress!"  
"Hi Keiko," I replied with an apologetic. "I'm sorry about having to call on you again so soon, but I need some help."  
"It is no problem at all, Mistress, I'm happy to help," the little fox chirped and bared her teeth in an impish grin.  
Naruto, who had only ever met Toshiko once or twice in the past, pulled his hands out of his pockets, crouching down beside me so that he was almost on eye level with Keiko. "Whoa, there's another one?"  
Kakashi-sensei crouched down behind me and peered at the creature curiously. "So this must be your summon that can heal."  
Keiko blinked up at him.  
"This is Keiko," I said and gestured to her. "Keiko, this is Naruto Uzumaki, Kakashi Hatake, and the one with the giant cuts on his chest is Sasuke Uchiha."  
She turned herself around to look at Sasuke, forgetting entirely about the other two. Much to Sasuke's displeasure she bounded up his leg without permission and started sniffing around at his wounds. The boy went to move her off of him but I batted it away from Keiko. He glared at me and I leveled him with a stare, not in the least bit intimidated - his patience was clearly running thin.  
Whether he liked it or not, Keiko had to get a good gauge of the wounds before she could help.  
She hopped down off of his chest after a couple of minutes and stared up at me expectantly.  
"So what do you think?" I inquired.  
"Well, I have some blood clotting recipes I can whip up real quick that you can use to keep the bleeding down," she chirped. She picked up one of her paws and licked it quickly between sentences. "I'll also bring more wrapping for the wound itself. All you can do is clean it up and then rewrap it."  
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What about your medical ninjutsu?"  
"What about it, Mistress?"  
"Can't you do anything to heal his wounds?"  
"I suppose I could try," she replied. "But medical ninjutsu really isn't where my talents are rooted. I'm more adept at the herbal side of medicine."  
"You healed part of my ankle."  
"I sped up the healing of the bones, Mistress," she countered. "If I had tried to do anything more I likely would have healed it incorrectly."  
I bit at my lip. That meant I was going to have to try and do what I could to heal it up. Healing the top layer of skin seemed to work well enough the first time, so I'd have to do the same thing again, along with using whatever Keiko could provide me with to get the wounds in the best condition possible.  
The wounds themselves had begun healing naturally as well. It had been nearly 4 days since the incident, and besides what had now opened up, the other parts of it were beginning to scab over and clear up. All I had to do was get Sasuke to the village in one piece and then the medic-nin who were there could deal with whatever was left over.  
"Alright, bring me whatever you can, please," I requested. "While you do that I'll try and heal up what I can."  
"As you wish, Mistress," she chirped. She vanished with a small puff of dust blowing up where she had been.  
I didn't waste any time, letting the thick green chakra curl around my fingers. The warm tingling sensation spread across my hands and I pressed them forward, trying to be as gentle as I could. Sasuke winced, barely, the muscles in his chest tensing and the edges of his eyes tightening. There wasn't much I could do to make him any more comfortable.  
"Sorry," I murmured. "I'll try and be quick."  
He grunted in response. I could feel Kakashi-sensei's eyes following me closely. The chakra crept over Sasuke's skin, moving with a mind of its own. I carefully pulled it in. Healing was a balancing act, having to constantly keep it reigned in but still allowing it to move into the damaged cells.  
"Kasu that's so cool! I wish I could do that!" Naruto burst out.  
It hadn't occurred to me that he'd probably never witnessed me doing medical ninjutsu before. I managed a smile, trying to keep my attention on the task at hand. "Thanks."  
"You gotta show me how to do that sometime," he said.  
"Maybe one day."  
"Like when we - "  
"Naruto, I love you," I said. "But I really need to focus on this so can you just… not talk for a little bit?"  
"Oh, yeah no problem," he said.  
Thankfully, Naruto had learnt not to take it personally if I asked him to stop talking. Sasuke managed a snort. I attempted at a smile but most of my focus was on keeping my chakra in check.  
Despite popular belief, medical-ninjutsu wasn't the most comfortable experience. The chakra was powerful and invasive in ways that our bodies naturally were opposed to. The best kind of comparison would be like getting a cavity filled. Does it hurt? Not really. Is it something you'd want to be spending a whole day doing? Definitely not. However if I slipped up it would most definitely hurt.  
There was a reason that some of the more skilled medic-nin were capable of using the art in an offensive manner. A slip up would lead to overwhelming the cells in the areas I don't want them in and just causing general damage. This was still chakra, afterall.  
I was also still really new to healing anything besides the minor little scrapes and bruises that I got during my training. If there was another option, I wouldn't dare heal an injury like this. Before I had an unreal amount of adrenaline pumping through my veins to help keep my chakra in check but now I was on my own, and I was starting to feel the strain of trying to heal such a large injury at once.  
The focal point was one spot on the sprawling wound but against my will I felt the chakra slowly ebbing away from the area I wanted it. Dangerous. Besides healing wounds this big, I also wasn't used to healing other people. Healing myself was different. The chakra doing the healing wasn't foreign, it wasn't nearly as intrusive.  
I furrowed my brow, carefully pulling my chakra back towards my hand.  
"Careful," Kakashi-sensei murmured. "You're going too fast."  
He was right. Of course.  
Like I was reigning in a fishing line I carefully gathered the chakra towards me, pulling it off of his skin, giving a little then pulling back further.  
For a split second, my control started to falter, the start of a slip up, and I instantly cut off all chakra going into my hands and pulled away. I let out a breath. Sasuke instinctively moved back some, sensing that something had gone wrong.  
"Fuck," I muttered.  
"Just slow down, we have time," Kakashi-sensei spoke from behind my shoulder.  
"I'm not trying to go fast," I replied, an edge of frustration tainting my tone.  
"You panicked, which is good enough," he shot back.  
I groaned, shaking out my hands. I hadn't used up a significant amount of chakra, but there definitely was a dent taken out of my reserves. The wound I was working on had the bleeding halted. The areas I was trying to focus on had regained a decent layer of skin while the rest of it, where my chakra had started leaking onto, was veiled in a bright pink shaky cover of skin that wouldn't hold up well once we started moving.  
Sasuke was watching me suspiciously. "I thought you knew what you were doing."  
I snorted. "Knowing what I'm doing and actually doing it are very, very different. I know all of the theory, I've just never had to implement it before… especially not on something this bad," I said. "Besides, it's not like you have any other choice."  
He locked his jaw. I was right. He knew I was right.  
"You can do it Kasu!" Naruto cheered, finally piping up. "Believe it!"  
I let out a genuine smile at his confidence in me.  
"Just go slow," Kakashi-sensei advised. "Keep the amount of chakra you let go onto the wound limited to less that what you normally would to make it easier to control."  
"Since when do you know anything about medical-ninjutsu?"  
"You pick up bits and pieces."  
After being in the hospital as much as Kakashi-sensei probably had, I shouldn't be too surprised that he had started picking stuff up.  
I shook off the thought and placed my hands back on his chest. Cautiously, I activated the chakra, letting the green glow surround only my hands, settling on one of the weaker sections of skin that had already started splitting open again. Under my palms the skin began to thicken.  
The chakra remained stable for a couple of minutes before it grew uneasy, drifting away from my grasp. I took in a breath, gathered the chakra towards me, then let out the breath in a deep exhale. It was about five minutes before I was fully satisfied that the skin over the wound would hold for at least another couple of days.  
I pulled my hands away again and admired my work.  
"You did well!" a voice chirped beside me.  
I jumped, looking down at Keiko who had appeared at my side. "What the fuck?"  
"Language," she tutted playfully.  
"How long have you been there?"  
"Oh, not long Mistress!" There was a small basket with various bottles and bandages stashed inside of it sitting in front of her. "I came back as soon as I finished."  
"Next time maybe like… tap me or something," I said. "Don't scare me like that."  
"As you wish," she hummed.  
I grabbed the basket and rummaged through it, pulling one of the bottles and scanning it. The liquid was mostly clear with a barely noticeable yellow shine to it. "What is all this?"  
"What you're holding is a disinfectant. The bandages are just plain old fresh bandages, the pink bottle is a modified pain medication from what I gave you before, and the little green stuff is to clot the blood on the wounds to help keep the boy from bleeding out," she explained, looking rather proud of herself. "This should be enough to get you back to your village safely."  
"Thank you Keiko," I said. "This is perfect."  
"Happy to be of assistance, Mistress!" she said and disappeared.  
There was enough of everything to last us back to the village and then some. The largest wound would be fine without being cleaned, all they needed was a new set of bandages. The same would go for the other two wounds, depending on whether or not I chose to heal them with medical-ninjutsu. Whether or not I was better off conserving my chakra and just cleaning them with what Keiko brought was up in the air, though.  
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I thought it over. The remaining wounds were dripping blood from their edges that was dribbling down Sasuke's chest. He stared at me, eyes full of a cold intensity. If I asked him about the pain, he'd probably just brush it off, acting the role of the cool tough guy, too stubborn to admit that the wounds hurt.  
"What do you think, Kakashi-sensei?" I asked. "Should I just bandage them instead of trying to heal them?"  
"I'd say so," he replied. "They don't look like they're as much of a threat to his health so long as they keep from being infected."  
Hearing somebody else agree with the opinion was all I needed.  
I reached into the bag and grabbed at the disinfectant, snagging a clean looking piece of cloth along with it. I tipped the bottle and dampened the cloth.  
"This is going to hurt," I warned. "If you want I can give you some of the pain medication and let it kick in before I clean it."  
He rolled his eyes and said, "Just get it over with."  
I raised an eyebrow. "Why? It'd take less than a minute to take effect."  
"I said just get it over with."  
Behind me, Kakashi-sensei snorted. "Then don't blame me if you pass out," I said with a scowl. I moved forward and dabbed at the edges of the wounds. His entire body stiffened, his eyes widening. Obviously he had underestimated just how badly this would sting - this wasn't just some little scrape being cleaned.  
I kept going, only pausing to change the cloth after it got too dirty for me to keep using. When I was satisfied that they were clean I switched over to the blood clotting solution. Some amount of blood had started leaking from the wounds being agitated by the disinfectant so I wiped it off before applying the green liquid. It was amazing how fast it started working. Within a minute the two gashes had stopped bleeding enough for me to rewind bandages around his chest. It would hold for a fair amount of time; if we were lucky, they wouldn't have to be changed until the same time tomorrow.  
"Done," I said.  
"Not bad, kid," Kakashi-sensei said. "Not bad at all."  
"Thanks." I reached back into the basket again, pulling out the pink bottle.  
"No," Sasuke said before I could even say anything.  
"Why not?"  
"I don't need it."  
I ground my teeth. "Stop being so fucking stubborn," I said. "You need to keep the pain level down."  
"Don't try and tell me what I do and don't need," he spat. "You're not my mother."  
Naruto looked like he was about to say something but I shot him a look. It was best if he didn't get involved in this one.  
"I don't have to be your mother to try and help you, idiot."  
"You have to be my mother to tell me what to do," he countered.  
"I'm not trying to tell you what to do, I'm trying to help you!" I half shouted. I had never met somebody more infuriating in both of my lives. "It's literally the entire point of being in a team. We help each other."  
He rolled his eyes. "I don't - "  
"Okay, enough," Kakashi-sensei said, finally stepping in - either because he got too annoyed with us or realized that this wasn't going anywhere, I couldn't tell. "Sasuke just take the medication. Think of it this way: if somebody attacks us, we need you to be able to function, and if you're in pain from old wounds you'll be far more likely to acquire new ones."  
The logic in Kakashi-sensei's argument made Sasuke falter. It was true. If a fight broke out, I wouldn't be all that useful. Though odds were anything that went up against us couldn't beat Kakashi-sensei but he wasn't exactly at his strongest right now as well.  
I smirked triumphantly as his resolve faded away and he grudgingly held out his hand. I popped the cap and poured out the liquid into it, estimating that the dosage was the same as mine had been. He snatched it from my hand, leant his head back, downed the entire thing in one gulp, and tossed the cap back at me.  
He grunted something out and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.  
I rolled my eyes as he heaved himself off the ground and shouldered past Kakashi-sensei, shoving his hands back into his pockets.  
"Jerk," Naruto scoffed.  
I sighed and gave him a smile, extending my hand. Naruto grabbed it and pulled me up, placing one of my arms around his shoulder to hold me up. Kakashi-sensei turned and Naruto transferred me over to him.  
We started back down the path, letting Sasuke gain some space away from us.  
"I don't get why he's so stubborn," I murmured, eyes locked on his back. To some extent, I understood what was going on in that boy's head, just because I knew really his entire history. Even that though didn't allow me full understanding of his thought process - something to be expected with him being an actual person and all.  
"It's cause he's a jerk," Naruto said.  
"Don't be too hard on him," Kakashi-sensei chimed in.  
I snorted. "He didn't even say thank you."  
"He also never asked you to help him."  
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why are you defending him?"  
He shrugged. "I just think you shouldn't be so quick to judge him for his actions without knowing everything he's been through."  
I grit my teeth, biting back any comments dancing on the tip of my tongue.  
"Whatever," I said to keep myself from saying anything else.  
Naruto tossed me a sideways glance. I turned my head away from him and let my eyes close, not wanting to talk anymore.  
I was tired and, in all honestly, I just wanted to go home.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTEEN  
.-.-.  
Snow crunches beneath my feet with each step I take, but I'm deaf to the noise. I lean my head down, headphones blasting in my ears, eyes not straying from my phone. I let out a breath of air into the frosty night. The small puff of fog blocks my phone screen for a fraction of a second before clearing out, fading away above my head. God, I had to make sure that I got those winter tires on my car before I worked next so I wouldn't be stuck walking home again - it was fucking freezing.  
At least I'm almost home, though. I can't wait to get out of the cold and take a hot bath.  
No, turn around.  
Aimlessly, I scroll through the book I have to read, not really paying much attention. There were only a few days left for me to write the essay on it for my English Lit class, but it was one of the more boring books I had ever read, and was quickly finding myself regretting taking the class. Cassidy, the girl who sat beside me, suggested I try the audio book, claiming it was way easier to make through, but I doubted that. I had taken the class hoping to find new reads and interesting class discussions, but so far I was just finding myself reading crappy old romance novels.  
A chill rolls down my spine. I shake myself out, my teeth chattering in my mouth.  
Snowflakes spiral down from the sky and land on my screen, melting into small droplets that blur the words from view. I pull up my sleeve and wipe the water away.  
Look up.  
I only manage to make it worse, however. Stubbornly I scrub away at the streaks.  
Stop it, look up!  
Man, this is annoying. Every time I wipe one away another seems to take its place. I let out a small curse of frustration. I hold a hand over the screen to prevent anything more from falling on it and reserve myself to just squinting through the puddles. The novel is currently at what the author intends to be a serious, emotion charged, meaningful moment - however, I'm unable to take it seriously.  
"Oh, Dean, you rebel," I say in a loud, mocking voice. I think so, at least. I'm unable to hear anything over the music blasting in my ears. "Staying with me through all of my trials and tribulations."  
I clear my throat with a cough and switch to a baritone voice. "Of course Stella, my one true love, I will stay by your side no matter what! I am here to protect you."  
I scoff. What a load of chauvinistic shit.  
Please!  
My foot drops off the curb.  
Please…  
I step forward, not bothering to pay attention to the road. It's too late for anybody to be driving down these roads, anyways.  
No…  
Out of the corner of my eye, I see headlights beaming at me. I take another step forward. I don't doubt that they'll stop for me, they always do.  
Not this time.  
I realize I am wearing all black.  
They don't see you.  
I freeze. My phone drops out of my hand, yanking the earbuds with it.  
You idiot.  
Nothing flashed before my eyes but headlights. A horn blares and tires screech against pavement reaches my ears before the front end of the car slams full force into my body.  
.-.-.  
I awoke with a gasp, tears burning in my eyes. My heart was pounding through my chest.  
Kakashi-sensei slowed his pace, turning his head to look over at me. "You alright kid?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, refusing to meet his gaze. My voice shook.  
"Wanna talk about it?" he murmured quietly.  
"Nope."  
"If you change your mind we got a long walk ahead of us."  
I stared forward, letting the warmth of the morning dry the wetness lingering in the corners of my eyes.  
.-.-.  
By the time night fell we had come across a small town. We were close to Konoha, enough so that if we toughed it out through the night and kept on going, we could probably make it there, maybe even get there before the sun rose again. With two of us injured, though, it was best to just call it a night and take the rest. I mean, I was more of a liability in that cause than Sasuke, though. So far, his wounds were healing really well on their own, partially thanks to my aid that helped keep them in a good position to do so. Hell, by the time we got back to the village, he might not even need to see a medic-nin.  
We decided to stay the night in a small hotel located in the middle of the town. It was cozy, hidden in a small niche between two restaurants, something you'd miss if you weren't looking for it. While the boys went off to get us checked in, I had been left at a table in one of the near empty restaurants. That was fine by me. I wasn't very good on my crutches anyways, especially now that it'd been a few days since I'd had to use them. Naruto had wanted to stay, but Kakashi-sensei thought that I could use a bit of a break from him. Since Sasuke had gotten good at ignoring him, Naruto just spent all his energy on me and Kakashi-sensei. Normally this was all fine and good, but I had a killer headache, and Kakashi-sensei was taking one for the team on this.  
A waitress had dropped by, but I'd sent her away and let my eyes fall a bit. The seats were fairly comfortable and I'd used up a fair amount of chakra not long ago to clean up Sasuke's wounds a bit, certain parts of it had started going raw again, far pinker than I'd liked. Nothing worth serious worry, just a lot more of my chakra than I'd been thinking I was going to use.  
"Young lady."  
I bolted up in surprise.  
A woman stood in front of me, her hands clasped before her. She was a bit older. Her long, silver hair was curled back into a loose bun at the back of her head. She had a kindly look to her, weathered skin that wrinkled at the corner of her eyes and the corners of her mouth, sure signs that her smile was a common feature on her face. However, I hadn't sensed her. At all.  
Civilians did typically give out a more faint chakra signature, but nothing like this. It was almost as if she wasn't even there. A mere trick of the eye conjured up by my imagination. That put me on high alert like nothing else.  
The waitress moved to come over, her eyes trained on the elderly woman, an action that assured me that this woman was indeed standing before me. The woman waved off the waitress with a gentle motion of her hand and a wink.  
I eyed her reproachfully. "Hello."  
The woman grinned at me and settled herself down in the seat across from me, letting out a deep sigh. "These old bones need a bit of a rest," she said heavily. "Oh child, do not look at me with such suspicion."  
"Who are you?"  
She clucked her tongue at me. "So to the point, how rude."  
I quirked a brow. "Avoiding questions is rather rude too, isn't it?"  
"Yes, it is, but I don't think 'who' is quite the right question you should be asking me," she said, the grin not leaving her face.  
"No?"  
"You should be asking 'what'."  
I shuffled over, slightly, almost unnoticeably, and placed a hand on my crutches. Something about her put me on edge. Really, besides her not having a chakra signal - a big red flag, don't get me wrong - she seemed like your average, run of the mill sweet old grandmother. Her shoulders were held back with grace and her movements were measured and soft, like a ballerina's. When she had stood in front of me, it was almost like she had been walking on air.  
"Come now," she said. "Can't we at least have a simple conversation?"  
"Answer my question."  
"If I told you my name, it would do you no good, none at all. As I said, 'what' is the question."  
Fine, I'd humor her. "What are you, then?"  
"I am no shinobi."  
Her words held truth to them, though my judge of that probably wasn't much good. While she was verbally running me in circles, her intentions didn't seem… malicious. Maybe she was just some old lady who got her kicks by messing with people.  
"I am also no civilian."  
I furrowed my brow. "What, are you a politician or something?"  
She chuckled and smiled, clearly amused. "I suppose I am, of sorts."  
"Why don't you have any chakra signature?"  
"Does it matter?" she inquired, eyebrow raised.  
"Everything has some level of chakra," I said. "You have none."  
"My, my. So many questions."  
"And yet you haven't seemed to fully answer a single one of them."  
"Where's the fun in that?" she giggled. The light in her eyes and the impish grin made it clear she had no intention of actually giving me any kind of solid answers. "Oh, don't look so down," she said.  
"If you weren't an old lady I'd have reached over this table and smacked you," I grumbled.  
"So quick to go to violence."  
"I'm a shinobi, we tend to."  
"Well as a wise man once said, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent."  
Before anything else, an image burst into my mind, a scene from a long time ago, one that had been hidden deep in the depths of my mind.  
Dad pat a wet cloth against the cut on my forehead and I winced, not fully prepared for the sting.  
"Stop squirming," he chastised. "The more you move the longer it takes."  
"But it hurts," I whined.  
"I know sweetie, but we need to get this cleaned up."  
I jut out my bottom lip, banging my ankles against the outside of the cabinets. The cup of toothbrushes shuttered on the counter each time my foot connected.  
"How much longer?"  
"I'm almost done, I promise," he said.  
"Man, she's so lucky that she knocked me out," I muttered. "I would have given her the old… uh… what's it called?"  
Dad chuckled. "The old one-two?"  
"Yeah!" I cheered. "That's it! I woulda given her that!"  
"But then you're no better than her."  
"She started it," I protested.  
"Doesn't mean you have to finish it," he said. "Just remember - "  
"Wait, are you going to give me one of your stinky old proverbs again?"  
"Hey, they're not stinky," he defended. "Your grandfather used to tell me these all of the time when I was growing up."  
"Yeah but grandpa is old and stinky."  
Dad snorted. "Don't let him hear you say that. Anyways, this one is good, I promise."  
"Fine," I groaned.  
"It's as a wise old man once told me," Dad said, poking the tip of my nose. "Violence is the refuge of the incompetent."  
I froze.  
"Where did you hear that?" I asked numbly.  
She shrugged. "It's just one of those things that people like my say, hmm? One of those… 'stinky old proverbs' as the kids always call them," she said with a smile. She folded her hands over her lap and stared at me.  
Her use of the term 'stinky old proverbs' hit me like a slap across the face. "No but I… I've only ever heard one other person ever say that," I murmured.  
"Is that so?"  
Out of my peripheral, I could feel the boys returning. They'd definitely been gone a while, it wasn't a surprise that they were on their way back already - just unfortunate for me.  
The woman turned her head in the direction of their oncoming chakras.  
"That is my cue to leave."  
"Wait, just one more question!" I cried desperately.  
She shook her head and moved towards the door. "Now is not the time, my dear child."  
"Please. Your name?"  
She sighed. "In your language, I am Litania. Just as you are were once Annika."  
Two things stuck me from this statement. One, the most obvious, the fact that the words fell out of her mouth in one smooth breath of English. The other was that she did not address me as Kasumi, the name I had come to know; rather she called me Annika. A name that had not graced my ears for twelve long years.  
I sat in shock as she breezed out of the restaurant, a single hand waving behind her as she slipped out of the door.  
The boys walked in and moved over to the table I was at.  
Naruto immediately bounded into the chair next to me, already going on about something or rather. I was too occupied with what just happened to even pretend I was paying attention to what he was saying. I had never in my life heard the name Litania. I had also never in my life met somebody who had no chakra signature, spoke English, or knew the name I had in my past life. Hell, nobody even knew I had a past life - for obvious reasons. Sure, she could have used some form of mind-reading jutsu on me. It would explain her knowing the proverb my dad told me and the name I used to have. The English, though, that was a sticking point.  
To my knowledge, the globe here does not exist as it did in my previous world. The map was in an entirely different shape and origin than mine. This was its own entire continent. That being said, little was known about anywhere else on the globe simply because of the secretive nature of all shinobi that ruled this world. Maybe English does exist somewhere on this globe. Maybe it doesn't. The point being, anybody on this continent would not know English, and travel between continents wasn't done, so there really wasn't any logical way for her to know the language.  
It didn't help any that all the conclusions of who this woman was weren't ones that followed any real kind of logic.  
Naruto elbowed me in the ribs.  
I flinched away, jumping in my seat and banging my knee against the table.  
"Fucking…" I muttered.  
"Sorry!" Naruto cried. "I just uh… you were… spaced out."  
"It's fine, don't worry 'bout it," I said absently.  
He paused for a second. "Is uh… everything alright?" Naruto asked.  
I looked over at him and tried for a smile. "Yeah."  
"You sure?" Kakashi-sensei inquired. "You've been awfully quiet since we came back here."  
"I'm just tired."  
It wasn't even a lie, I'd been tired for basically the entire trip. Perpetual chakra exhaustion had had a toll on my body - there was a reason shinobi had a forced two to five day break after each mission.  
He tilted his menu downward. "You look like you've seen a ghost," he joked.  
Close enough, anyways. Even Sasuke seemed mildly concerned, enough at least that he had taken time to stop contemplating what to eat and gave me a look. I picked up my menu and used it to block them off, effectively ending the conversation right then and there.  
The waitress came over to us, collecting the menus and taking our orders. Naruto ordered basically the entire menu - poor Kakashi-sensei looked like he was going to cry since he was the one paying for this - but I tuned out the rest. When she eventually turned to me I blinked blankly at her for a second before saying, "I'll take the soup of the day."  
She nodded and wrote that down. I thought that was it until at the last minute she turned back around. "Hey, did you know that old lady?"  
"What?"  
She inclined her head and slipped the pad into her back pocket so she could cross her arms. "The one who was sitting at your table for a few minutes. I couldn't understand a thing she was saying - not that I was eavesdropping or anything."  
"I didn't know her."  
The girl took that for what it was, shrugged, and walked away.  
"Old lady?" Kakashi-sensei inquired.  
"Just some weird old chick who sat down at my table for a bit to talk. She left right as you guys were coming in."  
"There was nobody else out there. The streets were completely deserted," Sasuke said, speaking up for the first time since he sat down.  
I furrowed my brows and opened my mouth then shut it again. Clearly, I didn't just imagine her since the waitress saw her too. How could she have just disappeared into thin air?  
"Are you sure she was just some random old lady?" Kakashi-sensei asked, but he had gotten a bit more stiff and his eyes were casually, slowly, scanning the rest of the room.  
"Very," I said firmly. "She was just blabbering on about her grandson the entire time."  
Clearly he didn't believe me. The dots had connected in his mind - my odd behavior and the weird chick I had failed to mention to them. He seemed to be weighing his choices. If he pushed me on it he knew better than to expect an answer right now because he'd just end up pissing me off, completely ruining his chances of being able to extract anything later on; if he waited, he could catch me at a better time and at least try to coax more out of me.  
When he said nothing, I knew that he'd gone with the second route. Naruto kept on talking, and this time, I made some amount of effort to at least stay engaged. He spent most of our time waiting for our food complaining about the annoying guy in front of them who kept yelling at the two boys for being disruptive. They probably were be. The poor guy probably just wanted to check into his room and get some sleep, and there those two were, arguing, shouting, being annoying. Probably. Knowing them.  
The food arrived and Naruto dug in, too busy shoving anything he could into his mouth to talk. I sipped at my soup. I had no idea what it was, honestly. It tasted pretty good. There were hints of chicken and the majority of the soup was vegetables floating around the bowl. I wanted to distract myself at this point. Thinking about that old woman anymore was just going to drive me nuts.  
We didn't take long to finish our food. Once all of our dishes were empty we wandered back over to the hotel. It was nothing special. Our room was situated on the third floor. I didn't even bother trying to get up them with my crutches and just waited for Kakashi-sensei to pick me up and carry me to the room.  
The room we were staying in had two bedrooms.  
"Kasumi in one, Naruto and Sasuke in the other," Kakashi-sensei announced. "I'll take the couch."  
Sasuke looked over at Naruto in disgust. "I'd rather take the couch."  
"Good for you," Kakashi-sensei said cheerfully as he tossed together a makeshift bed overtop of the couch. Besides not wanting to sleep with Naruto, I could see the strategic reasoning for Kakashi-sensei taking the couch. The entire main area of the room was visible from on the couch; there was a window within ear and eye shot; both of the bedrooms were on either side of it, allowing for easy access.  
Though not wanting to sleep with Naruto was also probably a big factor. He kicks in his sleep.  
"I'm not sleeping with him," Sasuke said.  
"If you're going to be such a fucking baby over it Naruto and I can share a bed," I said.  
He scowled at me but Kakashi-sensei clapped his hands together before he had a chance to toss a biting remark my way. "Well then that's settled, off to bed with all of you. Chop chop!"  
Sasuke turned left and trudged towards his room while Naruto and I went to the right, leaving our sensei alone in the main room. The bed was a double, more than big enough for the two of us. I opened up my pack and pulled out the only vaguely clean sleeping clothes that I had left. Naruto seemed to be doing the same thing, sifting through his bag and giving everything a sniff as he went. After a couple of minutes he settled on a plain pair of blue pants and a white t-shirt.  
"I'll face this way, you face the other way," I said, pointing at the adjacent side of the room. "Don't turn around until I say I'm done and I'll do the same."  
Wordlessly he turned and began slipping his shirt off and I did the same. I sat back on the bed so I could slip my pants on overtop my ankle without having to try not to lose my balance.  
"Done," Naruto said.  
The bed bounced a little as he sat down on the other side.  
I pulled my shirt over my head and shook out my hair. "Alright, done."  
I stood up again and hobbled around the room, collecting any pillows that I could find. When we'd been sleeping outside, I had just started balling up my blankets underneath my ankle to help provide support while I slept. I could do the same here, pillows were just a better option if I was able to find enough of them.  
Naruto got up and did the same, tossing one onto the bed. In all I ended up with four which was more than enough to keep it properly elevated. Naruto and I quickly got settled in bed. I pushed up against his shoulder and he snaked his arm underneath my shoulders.  
"You're really fucking warm," I murmured.  
"Is that good or bad?"  
"Good."  
"Yeah," he said over a yawn.  
"It's like having a portable heater."  
He let out a snort. We were quiet for a few minutes before the boy emitted a soft snoring sound - dead asleep. It was comforting. I let my eyes slip shut and I too was asleep in just a few short minutes.  
.-.-.  
I shot up, cuffing a hand over my mouth to stifle any noises.  
A cold sweat was streaking down my brow. My chest was heaving.  
Nightmares, again.  
The moon was high in the sky. Beside me, the numbers 3:41 were visible amid the darkness.  
I sighed and carefully removed myself from the bed, not wanting to agitate my ankle or wake up Naruto. Already, I could feel the pain in my ankle kicking in. I grabbed my crutches and shuffled over to my bag and blindly grabbed around until my fingers met the cold glass bottle. I had a feeling I wasn't going to be getting back to sleep anytime soon, so I wasn't going to bother waiting to take the dose. I gulped down the capful and grimaced - not the best taste in the world.  
I got back onto my feet and slipped out of the room.  
As I suspected, Kakashi-sensei was sitting up, gazing out of the window from his spot on the couch. He didn't react to my presence. I moved through the room towards the mini kitchen to grab a glass of water. Only after I had filled the glass, downed it, and the refilled it did Kakashi-sensei acknowledge me being there.  
"Nightmares?"  
I looked down at the ground and nodded.  
He hummed and went back to looking out the window. He had a book sitting out beside him, but didn't seemed to be even remotely interested in reading it. "If you want to talk, you know, I am open. I've faced a nightmare or two in my lifetime."  
"I don't think I can," I said quietly.  
"Can't or won't?" he inquired.  
"Can't," I replied firmly, probably a bit too much so. He met my eyes and raised his eyebrows. I closed my eyes and sighed. "Sorry."  
"It's alright," he said and turned his attention back out the window.  
I took another sip from my glass, emptying it, before I set it down in the sink. I shuffled over to the couch and settled down on it, curling my good leg against my chest and leaning my chin on it. It was a gorgeous night outside. There was a light fog gathering around the sky, a crescent moon shining out through it. Hundreds of stars glittered against the backdrop. It made me wish I had a camera with me.  
I moved my eyes downward again, my gaze tracing the nicks in the wooden floors. I couldn't tell him what the nightmares were, but I at least could divulge information about their occurrences. "I've had the same nightmare my whole life," I finally said. "They're infrequent, though, and never anything like… this. They're normally only when I'm especially stressed. I mean I'm stressed, this is a mission and all, but… it just… "  
I shook my head, not having any more words to continue the thought.  
"You've had one every night of the mission so far."  
"You could tell?" I asked.  
"You talk in your sleep," he said.  
"Really?"  
"Not loudly, but it's rather hard to miss when on watch and the rest of the world is silent."  
I let my head fall back against the wall. "Well now I know that the entire team is aware of it," I said sourly.  
"Nightmares aren't a sign of weakness," he said. "Even the highest level of shinobi are susceptible to them."  
"I know that. It's just not something I want being other people's business."  
"Understandable."  
The conversation dropped.  
Outside, I could hear the faint noises of people moving around on the streets. I opened up my senses and could barely trace what seemed to be a collection of civilian chakra signatures. They were erratic, rebellious even, the chakra shoving and pushing against the bodies confining it. Teenagers without a doubt. Probably out enjoying the summer night, rebelling against their parents and the rules set out for them, just as their chakra was doing. It was amazing how much could be told about a person by chakra.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed at Kakashi-sensei's now familiar signature. It was subdued. Relaxed, floating around him, not seeming to move in any particular fashion.  
He turned to look at me curiously. "What?"  
"You've got the most relaxed chakra signature out of anybody I've ever seen," I remarked.  
"How do you mean?" he asked, sounding genuinely intrigued.  
"When a person's awake they have a more… active chakra signature. It's kind of spiky, it's got more to it, like what I tried to explain to Tazuna a few days ago," I murmured. It was hard to put words to something of this nature. "But yours isn't. It's sorta floating around, cycling in no particular direction. It's as calm as most peoples are sleeping, if that even makes any sense."  
"It doesn't," he said. "But I get the gist of what you mean. As far as I knew, though, only highly trained shinobi are capable of honing their skills to this level."  
I blinked. "I mean… I have worked on it myself for as long as I could comprehend what I was doing. It's just always been something I could do."  
"How long is your range?"  
"I can sense those teenagers down there, doing whatever they're doing."  
"You can tell they're teenagers?"  
"Different people have distinct chakra signatures, but there are certain characteristics I've noticed people have in common. A chakra signature can be influenced by their personality, age, all that shit, while still remaining unique to the person who owns it."  
"You figured all that out on your own?"  
I shrugged. "I've had a lot of time. Plus, once you know what you're looking for and you've been around a person enough, it gets easier," I said. "All I can really tell about the people down there are that they're teenagers. They're far away, faint, and I've never actually been around them, so it's hard for me to say too much."  
"Hmm."  
"What?"  
"That's high level stuff," he said. "To be honest, you shouldn't be able to do that."  
"I know," I said.  
"You must have some level of a natural affinity to it. It makes me wonder if this is something that runs through your clan," he said slowly, almost like he wasn't sure if he should be saying this to me or not. "I can't think of any other way it'd be possible for you to have advanced this far on your own."  
That thought had been plaguing me for a long, long time. Sensing chakra had always been something of interest and an art I had invested time into mastering, but I knew from the start that I had some level of affinity with it. It had come to me too easily to just be a fluke.  
"I've wondered the same thing," I said. "I just try not to dwell on it 'cause the odds of me ever finding out any of those answers are slim to none."  
"You sure are full of surprises, kid," he said.  
"Every shinobi has their secrets," I murmured. A gut instinct told me that the Hokage was going to be hearing about all of this.  
I looked down at the book that sat between us and plucked it up. It was the usual smut type book that our sensei loved, for whatever reason. I didn't even have the chance to glance at the page before it was taken from my grasp.  
"No."  
"But I'm bored," I whined.  
He snorted. "Go read one of your own books."  
"I don't feel like grabbing it and I don't want to risk waking Naruto up. I'm not exactly the quietest person right now," I said and gestured to the crutches. "I'm lucky I didn't wake him up on my way here."  
"If I go and get you a book to read, will you promise not to touch mine?"  
"I promise."  
He rolled his eyes and got up, silently padding into our room and returning half a minute later with my largest herbal book in hand. I grinned.  
"It was the biggest one," he said and handed it to me. I went to grab it, but he pulled it away again. "But you have to answer a question for me first."  
"Oh come on…" I cried. "This is cruel."  
I reached out to my hands, trying to snatch it from him, and he wiggled it out of my reach. He was much taller than me as well, so there was no hope of me getting the book from him.  
"Fine. What's your fucking question?"  
He pointedly ignored the swear word and tone I had used. "Who was that old lady you met at the restaurant last night?"  
My hands dropped. So that was his question. I mean, I knew he was going to try again eventually, and what better time than now - I just hadn't been expecting it. I had been trying to avoid even thinking about her.  
"She was just some weird old lady, like I said last night."  
"Yet, your reaction said otherwise."  
I weighed the options.  
Did I want to lie? Better, could I lie?  
There was a real chance he would just see through any web I'd spin. He was a seasoned shinobi after all - any decent one had a built in lie detector for situations just like this. What parts of it could I really talk about, though? He couldn't know about her using my old name or speaking my old language. There wasn't much to tell besides that. She quite literally did not answer a single question of mine.  
I chewed my lip. "It… she had no chakra signature."  
His shoulders tightened. "None?"  
"None."  
"Why didn't you say this?"  
I shrugged. "To be totally honest, until the waitress mentioned her, I had thought I completely imagined her."  
"She could have been an enemy shinobi," he said.  
"No," I said. "I mean, yeah, but she wasn't. She honestly was just some weird old lady. She spoke nonsense, but there was nothing malicious about her."  
"You should have mentioned it."  
"Like I said, I didn't even believe it was real. And the conversation was entirely void. She wouldn't answer a single question I asked, all I got out of her is that she's a 'politician of sorts', whatever the fuck that means."  
"Next time kid, tell me," he said and handed me the book with a look of annoyance. "That could have ended very badly."  
I took the book and flipped it open without saying anything else, not in the mood to talk anymore. I needed to get my mind off of everything for a while.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER FOURTEEN  
.-.-.  
"Kasu, wake up!"  
I groaned, blearily blinking my eyes open. "Huh?"  
"We're almost home!" Naruto cheered.  
Another groan. I buried my face in Kakashi-sensei's shoulder. "Just a few more minutes," I moaned.  
"The gate's about five minutes off," Kakashi-sensei piped in.  
Home. After three long, hard weeks, we were finally back at the village. Mama, papa, my boys, a nice hot shower, and a good meal was so close. Before anything we were going to have to report to the Hokage and take a trip to the hospital. After that, we would probably get three or four days off to just relax and get back into a normal life before training picked back up again. It would be nice to have time off. I just had to make it through the rest of the day to get there.  
I sat up, stretching my back out and sighing in content as the joints popped and cracked.  
"Ew," Kakashi-sensei said, no doubt scrunching his nose.  
"Beautiful," I corrected.  
He scoffed. "That's so not normal. My back didn't do that when I was twelve."  
"Like I fucking care, all I know is that it feels good."  
"My back doesn't do that," Naruto said.  
"Neither does mine," Sasuke said, not passing up the chance to disagree with me.  
"Well whoop-de-fucking-doo," I muttered and let out a yawn.  
"You always are most fun when you're just waking up," Kakashi-sensei remarked.  
"Thanks."  
The familiar tree line brought a warm feeling blossoming in my chest. Three weeks. It doesn't sound like all that long, but when you're away from home for that long, without really meaning to be, it's almost a lifetime.  
As we approached the gate, I squirmed a little until Kakashi-sensei set me down. Naruto passed me my crutches and we continued on, strolling over the well-worn dirt path that lead to the village. A few Chūnin were standing outside of the gates on patrol. All of them looked absolutely bored out of their minds, chatting amongst themselves to help pass the time. When we got closer one of them grinned and raised a hand in greeting.  
"Look who it is, Kakashi Hatake," he called.  
Kakashi-sensei smirked and gave a two fingered salute. "Yo."  
"The Hokage's had us on watch for your little group for the past week. Took you guys long enough," the kid said. He gave us a good look over and his smile dropped a little. "Guess you guys had more fun than we did, huh?"  
His friend smacked him on the side of the head. "Don't be such an idiot," she muttered. She gave Kakashi-sensei an apologetic look. "Sorry. I'll radio the Hokage that you guys are on your way."  
"Thanks Miki," our sensei said.  
"No problem."  
The mighty doors to the village swung open with a loud creak.  
As we stepped through I turned to Kakashi-sensei. "How do you know them?"  
"I was going to be their Jōnin-sensei a couple years back," he replied. "But they failed my bell test."  
"Oh," I said, taken by surprise. That wasn't what I had been expecting. I mean, I knew that he had had teams fail before us, but none of them had ever actually been shown or introduced in the show. It was especially odd that they seemed to harbour no ill will to the man - not that doing so was an easy task.  
He shrugged. "They ended up getting taken by another Jōnin-sensei who had been working that year, so it worked out fine."  
Before anything more could be said on the topic we were caught up by the familiar hustle and bustle of the village. People were moving through the streets of the market and we made our way through them, not in any kind of hurry to get to the Hokage's office, though we probably should have been. The leader of the village and famed God of Shinobi was not the kind of person you typically kept waiting.  
I wasn't all that enthused about the ensuing conversation. To get through the entire thing was going to take hours and all of us were going to have to be there. Even though we had stayed the night in the hotel room, we were barely there for more than six hours. It was roughly two in the afternoon by now and we had left at six in the morning, meaning eight hours traveling with only a short break at lunch because all of us could hear Naruto's stomach growling. I had been half awake for most of the trek back to the village.  
Constant chakra exhaustion had taken a toll on my body. Sure, I hadn't had to walk the entire trip home - I also had to consistently be healing Sasuke the entire trip home. For somebody with limited reserves like myself it was hard on my chakra coils to essentially be emptying them out as soon as they filled, which was what I had been doing. Couple that with the nightmares keeping me awake for almost the entire mission, I was almost always tired. Even if my ankle hadn't been broken I would have probably been too spent to carry myself all this way back on foot.  
Whoever gave us a check over at the hospital was going to give me an earful, I knew it.  
When we entered the main building, we were immediately directed to the Hokage's office and ushered inside. The Sandaime was sitting at his desk, hands folded together, eyes glazed over as he stared downward, deep in thought.  
"Lord Hokage, sir, Team Seven have arrived."  
He looked up at us. "Thank you."  
The man bowed at the waist and stepped back out of the office, closing the door behind him.  
Sarutobi gave us an appraising look. "You look like you have quite the tale to tell."  
Kakashi-sensei scratched his head. "Yeah."  
"The floor is yours," he murmured and spread his hands out in front of him. "Start from the beginning."  
Kakashi-sensei did most of the talking. I didn't say anything for most of it, instead just listening and nodding along every once in awhile when it felt appropriate, dropping in the odd detail here and there that felt necessary. Sasuke remained silent as did Naruto, surprisingly. I caught a sideward glance of the boy and I could see the bags that had grown under his eyes. He was probably going to go home and sleep for an entire day, knowing him.  
Sasuke was stiff, as usual. I had given his wounds a last cleaning and rebandaging before we left the hotel room. They were in good condition. Hell, he probably could just go in, get them finished up by a medic-nin, and go home the same day without any problem.  
My turn to talk came when it had to do with the newly discovered clan name and abilities.  
"Kurosawa, eh?" Sarutobi said. "I've never heard the name before, though I suppose that's exactly the point, isn't it?"  
"He knew who my parents were," I said quietly.  
"What information did he have to give?"  
"He… uh… he was very familiar with my clan's technique," I managed. "And he talked about my clan having an infamously sharp memory."  
The Sandaime's eyebrows rose. "Sharp memory?"  
I chewed the inside of my cheek. "I uh… I never divulged this information to you, not out of the intent of lying to you," I said hurriedly. "I just… I was… scared I guess? I never really thought much of it, I just figured I had some kind of freaky weird memory or…"  
"Come now child, go on."  
"I can remember everything that's ever happened to me."  
"By everything you mean?"  
"Quite literally that," I murmured. "I can remember being with my parents when I was first born, I can remember my father bringing me here after my mother's death. I remember mama and papa first picking me out at the orphanage…"  
His expression held some level of scepticism, understandably. It wasn't everyday people made claims like this and actually were being truthful. "I know you may think you remember that, but it's impossible to remember something that happened when you were only two weeks old."  
"I remember my father speaking to the Yondaime, being told that he couldn't break the rules he himself had set in place," I continued on. Finally, I looked up. "I remember when I was four and I was assaulted in the alley, and I was so terrified that there was this man I didn't know with a knife that I activated my bloodlimit the firs time. The conversation that you had to have with my parents regarding my parentage. I know it's hard to believe, really. But I'm not lying."  
He set me with a stare. An inner debate ensued, I'm sure. Finally he spoke again. "I do believe you. My question then becomes, why did you not say so sooner?"  
"It… uh… I guess… like I said, I was just scared," I murmured. "I was worried that the only reason I had been allowed into the village was because I had no memories of my old village and that… maybe…"  
Naruto placed his hand over my own on my crutches and gave it a comforting squeeze. I glanced over at him and he gave he his big, wild grin, the one I had become so accustomed to. When I turned my attention back to the Hokage his expression had softened exponentially and the vice grip that worry had had on my chest lightened.  
"You're not in trouble, Kasumi," he said in that grandfatherly tone I had only ever heard him use with Naruto. "Not so long as you promise not to keep anymore secrets. We need this kind of information to help not only protect the others in this village, but you yourself."  
I nodded. "I understand."  
"Was there anything else?"  
This time, I glanced up at Kakashi-sensei, an unspoken question. Sarutobi also turned his attention to the white-haired shinobi. Kakashi-sensei shoved his hands in his pocket. "I think Kasumi is a sensor type."  
The words held a vague level of familiarity. Bits and pieces from the show started to flow back into my mind. If I remembered correctly, it was a way to describe those who were born with the ability to sense others by chakra.  
"I'm listening."  
"She has shown chakra sensing abilities that are far too great to be something she could work up herself without having any kind of foundation for it," he said. After half a second he added, "Though I don't doubt she has put in a fair amount of work into honing these skills."  
Coming from Kakashi Hatake, child prodigy, one of the most powerful shinobi in the village, the words held a fair amount of weight.  
"What leads you to believe that her strength in this is involved with her heritage?"  
"I've yet to encounter another sensor who has shown as much diversity and control over their sensing abilities at this kind of age."  
The Hokage looked back at me. "What capabilities do you have?"  
"Uhm… I can identify traits from a person's chakra signature with a small level of accuracy."  
"Last night, she identified a group of teenagers as such simply by sensing their chakra from about a block away," Kakashi-sensei offered.  
The Hokage's expression shifted slightly, showing a high level of intrigue. "Really?" he murmured. "Tell me, child, what led you to the conclusion that they were teenagers?"  
I blinked. "Well… it uh… their chakra, it seemed… rebellious?" I attempted. I opened my mouth and closed it again, struggling to grasp the words. "Sorry, it's really… hard to explain, especially since I've never had to try and put words to it before recently. The chakra seemed to almost be fighting against them, not willing to listen to their body, something that I noticed is typically only present in peoples from the ages of ten to twenty, give or take a few years."  
This was about the only time that my enjoyment of people-watching actually had some level of use.  
"I see. What leads you to believe each person has a unique chakra signature?"  
The question led me to believe that the Hokage had a good grasp over the subject because of exactly how specific and targeted it was. He was testing what I had learnt on my own, trying to get a sense of how far my skills extended. His tone was measured as was his expression.  
"I mean… I have no idea if what I think is right or not, I couldn't really get my hands on any books or anything that went too deeply into the subject."  
By that, I mostly meant that the show had never gone into detail about this kind of thing. None of the main characters had abilities that related to this in anyway, so it wasn't a topic that ever got well addressed. All of my opinions and knowledge on this subject was purely from my own observations - that was why I was so unsure about all of it. It's hard to be confident in something like this when nobody has ever given you any kind of direction. All of my guesses felt like absolute shots in the dark.  
His eyes crinkled as he smiled. "That's why I asked what you believe."  
"Well," I began. "It seems like a chakra signature is largely influenced by a person's personality. Every person has a different, unique personality, which is why each person has a unique chakra signature. The bits and pieces of their chakra signature are formed by the different parts of their personality, kind of like a mosaic of their life. That's why at this point I can identify something as general as age - or at least try to - and have some level of accuracy."  
"You're about as close as you can get without being taught," he said and rubbed his chin. He looked back up at Kakashi-sensei. "I find I agree with you Kakashi. I'm left wondering now, though, if her clan has managed to branch off into their own form of sensing abilities."  
Tiredly, I tucked one of my crutches under my elbow and rubbed at my eyes. Kakashi-sensei reached over and gently ruffled my hair, sparing me what I assumed was a smile hidden beneath his mask. I was ready to be out of this office. We had been in there long enough that half way through the meeting chairs were brought in for us because we were too tired to keep. After that lovely chat, the topic went back to discussing the rest of the mission and how it had occurred, the various events that led up to the eventual death of Zabuza and Haku. With all the important stuff out of the way, the Hokage waved us out of his office so that we could go and get checked out by the medic-nin at the hospital.  
The sun had begun to set outside. By the time we had gone through everything it was nearly 7pm and with the start of fall looming over the village, the sun was beginning to set earlier and earlier. We made our way to the hospital, which was only a short walk from the main building, in complete silence.  
All four of us were checked out in the same room.  
A medic-nin strolled in, winding her hair up into a bun at the back of her head. When she saw all of us sitting there she gave us a sympathetic smile. "First mission?"  
"Yeah," Kakashi-sensei replied.  
She looked over all of us and nodded. "Must have been an interesting first experience… not typically the result I see from a first mission."  
"It wasn't exactly a by-the-book mission," I said.  
"Gotcha. Who first?"  
I pointed over at Naruto immediately. "He's the fastest. Get him over with."  
Naruto and I were sharing a bed. I was laying back on it with my ankle raised on a few pillows and Naruto was occupying the empty space that was left.  
She recognized him, as nearly everybody did. I couldn't decipher the expression on her face but since it wasn't outright disgust, I would take it. She moved over to him and did a quick, general examination, giving a solid nod when she finished.  
"He's fine. A few days rest to recover from the long trip, but other than that he's in perfect health."  
Naruto jumped off the bed and pumped his fist, letting out a loud whoop.  
"Easy there," I laughed. "I'm sure there's at least one cranky old person in this hospital that you're disturbing."  
He stuck out his tongue. "Whatever, you're just jealous that I'm in perfect health."  
I rolled my eyes. "Oh shove it, Uzumaki. If my ankle wasn't broken, I'd kick you," I said. I made a faux pause and then raised my good leg, kicking him clear off the bed with it. "Whoops, looks like I do still have one good one."  
"Ow Kaka, you big bully," he whined.  
"I feel so terrible, I am very sorry," I said sarcastically.  
"Cut it out," Sasuke said. "You guys are acting like five year olds."  
"Better five year olds than fifty year olds," I shot back.  
The medic-nin looked back and forth as our exchange went on, finally setting Kakashi-sensei with a look of admiration. "How do you do it?" she asked.  
"Quality earplugs."  
I snorted. "More like quality porn."  
He narrowed his eye at me. "You wouldn't now, would you, kid?"  
"Alright, let's set this aside long enough for me to do my job, yeah?" the woman cut in.  
"Whatever," I said. "Hey Naruto, why don't you go bug mama and papa?"  
He eyed me suspiciously. "Why?"  
"Because they're probably worried," I said. "And if you give mama a good enough face she'll probably make you her ramen."  
"Oh… your mama makes good ramen," he said.  
I could practically see the drool forming in his mouth. Mama had only ever made him her ramen a few times, but he had said it was even comparable to Ichiraku's - mama had been flattered once I explained what that meant.  
"Just go distract them for a bit. Tell them I'm getting checked up, but don't mention the ankle, okay? Say it's taking a bit longer because I used a lot of chakra or something."  
He frowned. "I don't wanna lie."  
"Please?"  
"Fine," he grumbled. "But if your parents get mad at me because they know I lied you're taking the blame for it."  
He hopped off the bed and dragged his feet as he left. I rolled my eyes. Baby.  
"Thank you!" I sang cheerily, grinning at his retreating back.  
While they had been weary of him at first, mama and papa had taken a liking to Naruto. It only ever took them having him over for dinner once and witnessing just how kind of a heart he had for them to realize that he wasn't what many made him out to be. The more he came over and was hanging around, the more attached they seemed to grow to him. Naruto had that way with people. Something about him was like a magnet. Mama had even started packing me enough lunch to feed him as well when she learnt that he only even brought cup noodles because he didn't know how to cook for himself.  
I zoned back in and the medic-nin had started Sasuke's check up.  
"You can't lie to them forever, you know," Kakashi-sensei said.  
I sighed. "Yeah, I know… I just don't want to worry them. I'm sure they're freaked out enough that the mission took three times as much as it was supposed to, no need to add to that."  
His expression hardened. "That's not fair to them."  
"I'm not always going to do this… I just want to get them more warmed up to the idea of the whole mission thing."  
"Just be careful with this, okay?"  
"Sure," I said.  
"Kasumi," he warned. "Promise me that you won't hide this type of thing from your parents again."  
"Fine, I promise," I said.  
For now at least, there was no need to freak mama and papa out. A broken ankle wasn't the worst injury, but it certainly wasn't something to be taken lightly. What should have been an easy escort mission had turned into one of us almost being killed and me being mildly injured with all of us being pushed to our limits. Even Kakashi-sensei was having to really, truly fight. I'd rather just try and warm them up to the whole active shinobi thing before tossing them into the deep end.  
It was done out of love.  
"Did you do this?"  
"No."  
"Kasumi did," Kakashi-sensei said when Sasuke didn't offer any other explanation.  
I turned over in their direction.  
"You know medical ninjutsu?" she inquired.  
"I taught it to myself, yeah. I figured it would be a good thing to have."  
"This is incredibly well done considering you have no formal training," she said.  
"Thanks."  
She paused, taking another look at them. "If you'd like, I can give you some tips on how to improve," she offered.  
"That'd be great, actually," I said. "I did my best, but all the information I have is just theory I've read about in books."  
I scooted over a bit and watched her give the wounds a good look. "You definitely have the right idea. A bit sloppy, but that's to be expected. It looks like you were rushed, too."  
"What do you suggest?"  
She shrugged. "Practice makes perfect, really. You seem to have a good grasp on theory. You knew to go from the outside in and you also knew better than to just rely on your jutsu which shows a good amount of self awareness. Your herbal knowledge is also impressive," she said. She ran her finger over the wound and looked into her finger where she'd taken off a bit of the ointment that Keiko had given me. She rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger. "This is blood clotter, right?"  
"Yeah, but I didn't make it," I said. "My summon did."  
"You have a summon?" she asked in surprise.  
"Her name is Keiko. I specialize in poison, so I got a summon that can aid me in that," I clarified. "A medical summon just happened to be part of the package deal."  
She nodded. "That's good. If you specialize in poison, this is definitely a good skill for you to have on hand. Being able to heal the damage you do can be incredibly crucial in certain situations."  
"I figured."  
"Your control is remarkable," she said. "I mean, I can see where it slipped, but like I said, most of your mess ups just seem to be a lack of practice, not really anything you can learn through books. You've got a solid foundation."  
"Thanks, really," I said, and I meant it. "It means a lot to have an actual medic-nin tell me I'm on the right track."  
She smiled. As she began cleaning up my job, she kept talking. "If you'd like, I can bring you some of my old books and stuff that we used in our training. They're just sitting on my shelf so they might as well go to somebody who can use them."  
"Really?"  
"Sure, why not. I don't got any use of 'em anymore."  
That was going to be nice. I had some stuff that I'd managed to convince the librarian to grab for me, but it was nothing advanced. It barely even touched on things like fixing internal bleeding, any kind of head damage, mending bones, or the best way to approach deep tissue bruising - I only knew how to make bad bruises look like they're better.  
"Alright, done." She stepped back. It had barely taken her two minutes. "Most of the wounds had healed themselves, it just needed a bit of an extra kick in the right direction. You're clear to go home, just take it easy for a couple of days."  
Sasuke nodded but I knew he wouldn't be taking it easy. The kid didn't know how to.  
Kakashi-sensei reached the same thought because he shot Sasuke a look. "Listen to what she says. If you go too hard too fast you'll just make it worse and have to wait longer."  
"Whatever."  
He shoved his hands in his pockets and strode out of the room.  
I rolled my eyes at his cool attitude. He was so predictable.  
When he was out of earshot I said, "He's not going to listen."  
"I know," Kakashi-sensei sighed. "It's worth at least trying."  
The medic-nin finally turned to me and carefully sat down next to my ankle. She didn't actually touch it, instead letting her hand rest above it with a bright green cloud of chakra covering her hand. I didn't move. She was facing away from me, so I couldn't get a gauge of what she was thinking, but I didn't like the silence.  
When she was done she stood and moved towards the door.  
"I'll be right back, I need to grab something."  
She closed the door behind her.  
"Oh, fuck."  
"I'm sure it's nothing," Kakashi-sensei said absently. He had gotten bored and started reading one of his books. He had managed to get into a criss-cross position in one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs across from me. "Don't jump to the worst conclusion yet."  
"Easy for you to say, it's not your ankle," I quipped back. My eyes narrowed. "Wait, why are you still even here?"  
"I have to get cleared too."  
"Actually?"  
"Duh."  
"Did you just duh me?"  
"I don't know, did I?" he asked sarcastically.  
"Holy shit, I'm rubbing off on you!"  
He snorted. "Don't get your hopes up there kiddo."  
"I am," I said proudly. "I know I am."  
"Whatever makes you happy."  
"Don't deny it," I teased.  
He slipped the book down a bit and shot me a deadpan. "Why are you so annoying?"  
"Naruto rubbed off on me."  
"Haha."  
The door creaked open again and the medic-nin walked back in, a small vial in hand and a very not-small needle in her other. My eyes grew as wide as saucers. She closed the door behind her again and got back into the position she was in before.  
"I need to - " she began before she took in my expression. "Wait, are you scared of the needle?"  
"That's a big needle," I squeaked.  
"Come on, it's not that big," she said. "Just close your eyes."  
Kakashi-sensei moved his book again and smirked. "Yeah, that is a big needle."  
"You're not helping!" I cried.  
"Yeah, definitely not helping," the medic-nin said and scowled at the man.  
He grinned shamelessly. Asshole.  
I let out a big breath. She's right. It's just a needle. Not a big deal. I'm a professional killer who makes poisons that are strong enough to down a horse in under a minute. What's the big deal about a needle?  
"Okay," I whimpered. "Just get it over with."  
She did just that. She stuck the needle into the top of the container and pulled it back until she was satisfied with the amount she had gotten. She pulled it out and set it against my skin and I closed my eyes. She broke the skin and I gripped the side of the bed. It took all of my self control to not jump sky high - that thing fucking hurt. I had very good reason to be nervous about that. That was well-deserved caution.  
She set the bottle down on the bedside table and removed the needle. I hissed out a breath.  
"That should numb the area," she said. "Just tell me when you lose feeling and I'll begin."  
"Got it."  
"I doubt I can do get this completely healed on the first time, so I have to numb the leg below the knee. This way when I have to rebreak the bone you won't be feeling it. Normally we'd just put you to sleep, but I think this would be a good chance for you to get to see this kind of thing in action, so I'm only going to numb it. It'll be numb for the next three or four hours, so you'll probably want to use the crutches to get home."  
I nodded, but I already knew that I wasn't going to be using the crutches.  
It was about two or three minutes before the numbness fully set in. When I gave her the go-ahead, she unwound the bandages and started to take a good look at the injury. Her expression tightened the more she looked at my ankle.  
"What the hell happened?"  
"Long story."  
She scowled. "This is an absolute mess. You're lucky that it was set properly, otherwise you'd likely have been in deep trouble."  
"Sasuke was the one who set it," I said.  
"You owe him big for that," she said. "The bone is entirely shattered. I haven't seen a break this bad in a long, long time. It'll be like putting a puzzle piece back together."  
"That's why I didn't even bother trying to heal it," I said.  
"Good thing. You gotta be careful not to overestimate your abilities. You can end up costing somebody a limb - or worse."  
In total, it took her about half an hour to fully reassemble my ankle bone. This time she was near silent while she did her job, putting all of her focus into fixing what had been messed up. Kakashi-sensei shifted from the chair to the bed beside me, shifting his attention between the book and being fascinated by the healing process.  
Over the course of the entire procedure she had to rebreak three separate sections of the ankle to fix messups and what she called 'sloppy fixes'.  
It was kinda cool to watch, actually. She let me take a glimpse into the process a couple of times too and gave me tips every few minutes when she took a break. This wasn't how I expected the hospital visit to go at all. What I thought was just going to be getting my ankle fixed ended up being a useful medical ninjutsu lesson as well. When she finished up with my ankle she moved onto the rest of my body.  
She made a humming noise in the back of her throat when she checked out my coils.  
"Low reserves and you were constantly tapping them, weren't you?"  
"I had to."  
"Watch that one," she said. "You're lucky - you could have permanently damaged them. Your coils look to be highly delicate, you should be careful of that in the future. I say you're fine to go back to training in a week, but no using chakra for at least two. You need to give your body a break before you start pushing at your coils again."  
"Got it."  
"Good to hear." She stood and moved over to Kakashi-sensei. "Other than that, you're fine."  
Shakily, I stood up, nearly losing my balance when I tried to stand on my numb leg. Kakashi-sensei rolled his eye. "You just got that leg healed kid, don't mess it up again already."  
"Hush," I said. "I'm just… getting used to it."  
She glanced over at me. "Just take the crutches," she said. "You only need one to get home."  
"I don't need them!" I insisted. I took a step forward. And another.  
"Kid, wait," Kakashi-sensei said in exasperation. "If you wait like five minutes for her to check me out I'll help you get home."  
"I can do it!"  
He rolled his eyes. "Fine, but if you hurt yourself that's your own fault."  
I stood tall and hobbled my way out the door. I earned a few odd looks from people as I made my way out of the hospital. A couple of nurses stopped me to ask if I was alright, one of them even threatening to send me back to my room. I shook all of them off. I could do this.  
I made it out of the hospital all on my own. The sky was bathed in a brilliant array of oranges, pinks, reds, blues. Sunset was gorgeous. The cool air had a bite to it, in a pleasant way. Out of all the seasons fall was by far my favourite. Summer was too hot; winter was too cold; spring was too wet; it was only fall that managed to be the perfect mixture of hot, cold, and clear weather. It was a nice time to be entering it, right now when I would have a bit of peace to enjoy it.  
With a sigh I took a couple more, cautious steps forward. Slowly but surely. Slowly but -  
An arm wrapped around my waist and lifted me up off my feet.  
I screamed, wiggling around until I took notice of the white hair. He set me on his shoulders like a father did with his kids, except that they only ever did that with toddlers, not twelve year olds, and certainly not somebody else's kid.  
"For fucks sake."  
"I think you meant thank you?"  
"I said I could do it myself!"  
"You said it, but you're a liar," Kakashi-sensei said.  
"She said that I could walk on it and it'd just feel weird."  
"That's because she didn't think you'd actually try and walk all the way home with one leg numb below the knee."  
"She shouldn't have said it then," I muttered.  
"She also said for you to stop by the hospital again tomorrow. She'll bring the books with her and give them to you then."  
"Got it." I paused for a minute. "Do you know where I live?"  
"Nope. Just lead me in the right direction."  
"What if I lead you in circles instead, will you put me down?"  
"No, I'll just wander aimlessly until we get there."  
I groaned. "You've literally been carrying me for an entire week, aren't you sick of it?"  
"I've had mission bags that weigh more than you."  
"That's a total lie, you'd never have a mission bag weigh that much."  
"You've never seen somebody pack for a month and a half long mission, have you?"  
"Well… no."  
"Then how do you know it's a lie?"  
He had me there. I still doubted it, considering shinobi were always taught to travel incredibly light to avoid being slowed down. It was just part of the job. I got bored while we were walking and started playing with his hair. How on earth did somebody even get born with white hair? Wait… was this what he was born with? I shifted it further, looking for a scalp.  
"What are you doing?" he asked in annoyance, tilting his head back so he could see me.  
"Is this your real hair colour."  
"Obviously."  
"I thought only old people had white hair."  
"I am old."  
"Oh yeah? How old are you?"  
"That's a rude question."  
"You said you were old, so come on, answer the question."  
"If you ask me again I'm going to drop you."  
"You wouldn't dare," I said. His silence was unnerving. "Right?"  
He tilted his head back again and his eye held a mischievous glint. Slowly, he leant forward. I squealed, leaning back.  
"Okay, okay!" I cried, gripping on for dear life.  
He chuckled, righting himself and continuing on the way. I had never realized how far away my house was from the hospital. It had been a long time since I'd gone directly from one to the other, which was probably a good thing.  
I pointed over to the right. "Turn on this street."  
He obliged, meandering in the direction I had motioned to. It was peaceful. People were milling around the marketplace still, but nobody seemed to be in a rush anymore, not like when we had first returned. Everybody was more interested in just enjoying the evening by the looks of it. It was weird to be back home again after all this time. The familiar village was a sight for sore eyes, but I hadn't realized just how much I was going to miss it when I was gone.  
The smell of food wafting through the air had my stomach grumbling.  
Kakashi-sensei snorted. "I heard that."  
"It smells awesome and I'm hungry."  
"Guess it's a good thing I'm helping you get home, otherwise it would have taken you way longer to get home," he said in a smug tone.  
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered.  
"What was that?" he said. "A little louder, hmm?"  
"Oh for crying out loud… thank you, Kakashi-sensei, my saviour, for carrying me all the way home because my leg was still too numb to walk," I droned. "Happy?"  
"Quite," he said.  
I set my chin down atop his head and gazed around, watching the people go about their business in the market. A family out for dinner, a couple out on a date, friends hanging out and being kids. It was a good way to pass time.  
"Hey, kid," Kakashi-sensei said. "You did well today."  
"Huh?"  
"With the Hokage."  
"Oh. Yeah."  
He looked up at me. "Being honest with the leader of your village when you think you're going to be in trouble isn't an easy thing to do - and you did it. I know a lot of high ranking shinobi that wouldn't have handled that as well as you did."  
"I barely got out a single sentence without stuttering."  
"Give yourself a bit of credit, kid. You did fine."  
"Yeah, well - "  
I turned, an all too familiar chakra grabbing my attention at the edges of my senses. A grin stretched across my face and I waved as the group weaved their way towards us. The boys were the first to reach us.  
Shikamaru wore his typical cool-guy smirk. Chōji smiled up at me, small drops of barbecue sauce littering his clothes. "Hi Kasumi!"  
"Hey guys," I said. "Dinner?"  
"Yeah, Asuma treated us," Shikamaru said. "He lost a bet."  
Asuma strolled over, cigarette lit and hanging out of the corner of his mouth. Out of habit I snagged the cigarette and tossed it onto the ground, scrunching my nose up in disgust - I hate cigarettes.  
They smell like shit.  
Asuma sighed, staring longingly at the now doused cigarette. "I just lit that."  
"I warned you she was going to do that," Shikamaru said. "She does that to everybody."  
Asuma scratched his head. "Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's rude to touch stuff that's not yours?"  
"Yeah, but she also taught me cigarettes are bad," I replied. "And the smoke was in my face."  
"Hey, Asuma," Kakashi-sensei said and gave him a nod.  
"Kakashi," Asuma greeted with an incline of his head as well. "How did the mission go?"  
"It was completed," he said, his eye crinkling at its edge indicating that he was smiling beneath his mask. "A bit differently than we imagined but nobody's dead so it all around was a success."  
I rolled my eyes. "Lemme down."  
He looked up at me, eyebrow quirked. "Are you sure?"  
"Yes."  
He leant forward at his hips and dumped me off of his shoulders, hands still tucked safely in his pockets. I fell on the ground, landing directly on my ass with a yelp. "Oh come on, was that fucking necessary?"  
"You just said 'let me down'," Kakashi-sensei said. "You should have clarified that you wanted to be set down."  
I glared at him. Shikamaru let out a snort.  
"You must have fun with this one," Asuma observed, the corner of his lips tipped up in an amused smile.  
"She's just a perfect little bundle of joy," he said and reached down, ruffling my hair.  
I swatted away his hands and held out my arms, one towards Shikamaru and the other towards Chōji. The two boys helped me up and I wobbled a little on my feet, my leg still too numb to fully support my weight.  
"What's up with your leg?" Shikamaru asked.  
"It's numb below the knee."  
"Why?"  
"I broke my ankle and she had to numb it to heal it."  
"She numbed it?" Asuma asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've never heard of them doing that."  
"It was a bad break," I said. "Sorta… y'know… the bone was shattered."  
"What rank mission did you guys go on?" Asuma asked, directing the question at Kakashi-sensei.  
"Started as a C-rank, ended as an A-rank," Kakashi-sensei said and gave Asuma a look that I couldn't decipher. "It's a long story."  
"I bet."  
"You went on an A-rank?" Ino asked, speaking up for the first time, a hint of jealousy in her voice.  
"Sadly."  
"No fair, I want to go on an A-rank," she said and shot Asuma a pouty face. "Asuma-sensei?"  
"Not a chance," Shikamaru answered for him. "That's way too much work."  
"And we probably aren't ready for that kind of thing," Chōji said. "We're not that good."  
Ah, Chōji, forever the sane voice of Team 10.  
My stomach let out a mighty roar. I rubbed it in a futile attempt to soothe the beast, whispering softly to it as I did so.  
"Jeez, when was the last time you ate?" Shikamaru asked. "I've never heard anybody's stomach growl that loudly before."  
"It's been awhile," I said. "I think I had breakfast this morning?"  
"Okay, I'm taking you home before your parents start yelling at me. The last time I made your mom mad she threw a slipper at my head," Kakashi-sensei said and rubbed his head at the memory.  
"Your mom threw a slipper at him?" Shikamaru asked with a devious smirk.  
I laughed a little. "Yeah… it was the first time I had exhausted my reserves badly and I couldn't walk, so he had to carry me all the way home. Mama was so mad."  
"It's not my fault you decided to keep trying to use your summon after I told you not to," Kakashi-sensei defended. "Man, that woman has a mean arm though."  
"Yeah, that sounds like your mom," Chōji said cheerily.  
So far, Naruto and Shikamaru had both managed to incur mama's wrath at least once. Chōji hadn't but that wasn't much of a surprise - I don't think he even knew how to make somebody mad.  
"Okay let's go home!" I said. "I told Naruto to get mama to make him food when he went there earlier, so there should be something there for me."  
"Your mom cooked?" Chōji asked. "I love your moms cooking."  
"She probably made a lot so if you want to have some you can come too," I offered.  
"If he's going to your house I might as well go too," Shikamaru said. "I don't have anything else better to do right now."  
I shrugged.  
"Well I'm going home. Mom and dad said they want me home to do some training before I go to bed," Ino said. "Bye!"  
She shot us a wave before she ran off. Ino and I had started getting along better ever since she was teamed with the boys because of us being together more often, but I still didn't think she was anymore fond of me than I was of her. She was nice enough. She was just a bit of an airhead. A nice airhead, but still an airhead.  
Kakashi-sensei went to lift me back up onto his shoulders but I scooted out of the way.  
"I want to walk the rest of the way," I said.  
"She said it would be at least three hours, and it's been, what? Maybe an hour and a half?"  
"I had to get carried around and use crutches for two and a half long fucking weeks," I said. "Just let me walk home."  
Shikamaru sighed. "This is taking too long," he said and grabbed the arm on the side of my numb leg and slung it over his shoulder. "Let's go."  
He was a fair bit taller than me so he had to slouch a bit more than usual so that I could reach but I would settle for it. Kakashi-sensei gave a shrug and with that, we trekked the rest of the way to my house. Kakashi-sensei and Asuma chatted a bit, talking amongst themselves, while the boys filled me in on what I had missed while we had been gone. Their team went on a boring C-rank mission that took them half a week to complete. Ino beat some guys up in the park when they tried to flirt with her. Chōji was in the hospital at one point due to eating too much at a restaurant.  
A fairly typical three weeks by Konoha standards.  
When we got to the house, Kakashi-sensei and Asuma went off on their own, probably to have a deeper discussion on what had went on, and Shikamaru helped me into the house. I slipped away from him as the door swung open and managed to get into the house with what I hoped was a normal looking step.  
Mama and papa were sitting at the kitchen table, chatting amongst themselves. Naruto was nowhere in sight, but I could see a pot of something sitting on the stove, steam curling up from the top of it. I took a deep whiff and let out a content breath - it was mama's ramen, alright.  
I stepped into the kitchen and both of them raised turned towards us.  
"Oh, baby!" mama cried and got up, rushing over to give me a hug. "It's so good to see you."  
Mama gave the best hugs. When she moved away, she looked like she was holding back tears. Papa swooped in with a hug as well, giving me a kiss on the temple.  
"There's my little ninja," he said with a chuckle. "We were starting to wonder where you'd gone off to. Naruto said you were dealing with something else at the hospital, but he said he didn't really know what it was."  
Well, he did say he wasn't going to lie. That wasn't really a lie.  
"The medic-nin who was helping us gave me a bit of a lesson since she had some time after she checked us out," I said. "I'm going to go back tomorrow because she said that she'd give me some of her old textbooks that she didn't use anymore."  
"Sounds exciting," papa said.  
"Yeah," I chirped.  
Mama gasped and leapt forward, her hands going to my shirt. The force of it made me stumble back a little and Chōji shuffled forward enough so that it wasn't all that noticeable, it just ended up looking like she'd taken me by surprise. Hopefully.  
I looked down at where her hands were and chewed my lip. Oh, yeah. The outfit that they had gotten me as a graduation gift had gotten almost entire destroyed over the course of the mission. Tsunami had tried to clean our clothes but well… real fights were hard on even the most well-made shinobi quality outfits. The outfit was littered with knicks, holes, tears, and stains.  
"What on earth did you do to your clothes?" she cried. "Your shirt is a mess! Your pants, too - that dirt stain is never going to come out!"  
I didn't have the heart to tell her that the 'dirt' stain was actually dried blood. "Yeah… a three week long mission is pretty tough on clothes. But hey, with the pay I'm going to get from it, I can buy a new outfit!"  
Mama sighed. "I loved this outfit. I picked it out myself."  
"I helped," papa said indignantly.  
"I'm sorry," I said. "I tried to be as nice on it as possible."  
"Give her a bit of a break, Tamaki," papa said. "She did just get in the door."  
I sent papa a grateful smile. Mama relented, though not without a scowl thrown in papa's direction, and I let my pack fall to the ground, ready to get something to eat.  
"Naruto requested ramen, of course," mama said. "I didn't have the heart to say no. There's a lot left if you boys want to have some too."  
"I'm not hungry, but thanks Mrs. Himura," Shikamaru said.  
Mama moved over to the cupboard and grabbed two bowls - she already knew that Chōji was going to have some of the ramen. I glanced around, not seeing Naruto in sight. Curiously I stretched out my senses a bit and could feel Naruto was in my room, fast asleep. Ew. He probably smelt terrible if he hadn't taken a shower.  
"Did Naruto shower?"  
"I doubt it," papa said. "He was barely awake when he went upstairs."  
"He's asleep in my bed."  
"Let him sleep," mama said. "He was exhausted."  
"But he's in my bed and he smells horrible," I whined. "Trust me I'd know, I've had to smell him for the past three weeks."  
Mama and papa exchanged glances. They probably wanted to ask about what had happened during the mission. Mission information was kept strictly under wraps, especially to civilians, regardless of their relationship to those involved. The only exceptions were made if somebody fell during combat and even then most details were left out of the explanation. I don't doubt that mama and papa had tried to find out what was going on, but they probably were entirely in the dark about what the hell had happened, especially considering the Hokage himself had very limited information about what was going on.  
I must have looked pretty bad because they didn't end up saying anything.  
"We're going to go up and eat in my room," I said.  
Mama opened her mouth to say something, probably to remind me of the strict no-food-in-room rule that has been in place for years, but papa shook his head. A silent exchange went between the two of them. Whatever happened, mama laid back against her chair with a defeated huff.  
"Just be careful sweetheart," papa said. He looked at Chōji and winked. "You too other sweetheart."  
I groaned. Chōji laughed. "Yes sir. And thank you for the food, Mrs. Himura."  
I grabbed my bowl and went to grab my pack but Shikamaru already had it pulled over his shoulder and was waiting at the edge of the stairs for us. His hands were tucked behind his head and he was staring up at the ceiling in boredom. I took a few measured steps until I knew I was out of view of mama and papa before I let myself fall into a more comfortable hobble.  
I handed Chōji my bowl and used both hands on the railing to help me get up the stairs and up into my room. I could hear Naruto snoring from down the hall even with my door closed. Shikamaru opened the door for us and I hobbled in first, beelining it for my bed. I collapsed onto it and poked Naruto in the leg. He kept on snoring. I poked him a bit harder, but he was completely dead to the world.  
With a sigh I put a bit of chakra into my finger and poked him again - that got him up. He yelped and shot up in bed, eyes wide.  
"Sorry," I said. "I just wanted to wake you up."  
He rubbed his eyes. "You could have just shaken me or something," he said, his speech still slurred by sleep. "That hurt."  
"I said sorry!"  
"Why did you wake me up?" he whined.  
"You smell horrible and I don't want it to rub off on my bed," I said. "Go take a shower. You can borrow papa's shampoo and stuff if you don't want to use mine."  
He grumbled crankily but he did get up and go into the bathroom to take a shower. I got up onto my bed and crossed my legs, relishing in the fact that I actually could. Chōji handed me back my bowl and I wasted no time in slurping it all up, probably eating more quickly than I should have. Mama had served me a nice big bowl, too, so I was actually full from just the one. Thankfully. I didn't want to have to go back down the stairs.  
I fell back against my bed and grabbed an elastic, sticking my hair into a messy bun atop my head.  
"What time is it?" I asked.  
"It's 9pm," Chōji said.  
"Mama and papa might kick you out in about an hour or so," I said. "I can ask them if you can stay the night, but you know their rules, you gotta call your parents and stuff."  
"I will, I don't feel like walking all the way home," Shikamaru said from his spot on my carpet.  
"Same," Chōji said around a mouthful of noodles.  
After Chōji finished his noodles they both went downstairs to go talk to mama and papa. Mama and papa typically didn't care if the boys stayed over by this point as long as they were sure that their parents were okay with it. We'd been friends for years now.  
The door creaked open and Naruto walked in. He plopped onto the bed next to me and I sniffed at his arm. "So you did use my stuff."  
"It was there," he said.  
"You smell much better." I pushed myself into a sitting position. "I think there's a pair of your pajamas somewhere in my stuff if you look hard enough."  
I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one set of clothes from each boy hiding somewhere in my house. They were over here enough that clothes tended to get lost in the shuffle. At least at my house it was clear that they weren't mine - when one boy lost something at another's, it was a whole different story.  
He rolled off of the bed and started rifling through my closet, tossing clothes all over the place. I felt my eyes pulling themselves shut. I was exhausted. It would be nice to finally get a good night rest in my own bed.  
"While you do that, I'm going to go take a shower," I said. "If you can't find anything just go steal something from papa's closet, he won't notice."  
.-.-.  
I walked back into my room to find all three boys sitting on the floor in some form of sleeping clothing, talking amongst themselves. They all looked over at me when I opened the door. By now, my leg had woken up enough that it wasn't too difficult for me to move around on it. It felt weird actually walking again after so long of either being carried or using crutches.  
"What?"  
"We were just talking about the mission," Naruto said. "And… stuff."  
"Stuff?"  
"We've gotten all the way to when you got to the bridge builder's house."  
I chewed my bottom lip. "What did you tell them so far?" I asked Naruto. "About… y'know…"  
"Nothing," Naruto said.  
Shikamaru looked between the two of us suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"  
The boys had no idea about anything to do with my heritage. I had never used it in front of either of them as well and until the mission I'd never spoken a word about what I knew. Both of them were aware that I was adopted - it was kind of hard not to notice. They just thought I was a random orphan from the village. They never had a reason to think otherwise.  
I tossed the towel off to the side of my room with the other pile of laundry that I had to do eventually. I had brought a pair of pajamas, just a plain blue tank top and shorts, with me into the bathroom. The air was a bit chillier tonight - as much as it could get in the Fire Country - but I preferred to be a bit cold while I slept, anyways.  
"It's a really long story," I said.  
"We have all night," Shikamaru said.  
Chōji scooted over and I plopped myself down between him and Shikamaru. Where would I even start? There was so much to tell. I did want to tell them - I wanted to tell them everything. I always had, I just never knew how or if they'd even believe me.  
Both of them were watching me patiently. I looked down at my lap, fidgeting with the loose threads that were hanging off of the carpet.  
"When I was four, I was attacked by some creep in an alley with a knife. As any four year old would I freaked out and activated what I know now as my bloodlimit. At the time I didn't know what was happening, but I'd managed to become entirely invisible to the guy who was attacking me."  
Chōji and Shikamaru both spoke at the same time.  
"Invisible?"  
"Bloodlimit?"  
Rather than say anything more, I flicked on the technique. Only for a second but that was long enough to get the message across.  
"Holy fuck…" Shikamaru breathed. Chōji was in a bit of a stunned silence.  
"Yeah," I murmured. "Like I said, long story."  
"I've never even heard of a bloodlimit like that," Shikamaru said.  
"I… I thought you were a civilian orphan?" Chōji uttered, the statement coming out as more of a question.  
I gave my head a shake. "This is where the long story comes in," I said. I grabbed one of the pillows laying on my floor and hugged it against my chest, resting my chin on top of it. "I was born into Kirigakure, the Village Hidden in the Mist. My real last name is Kurosawa. My parents didn't want me to be raised in that village, so they smuggled me out of it and were both ultimately killed in the process."  
"I know that Kiri is a cruel village," Shikamaru said. "But I didn't think they cared enough to kill people over something like that."  
"Normally they wouldn't," I agreed. I shook my head, my sopping wet hair falling into my face. "All I know is that my father said he had 'important information' that the village wanted, though I'm not sure if he was being totally honest at the time. I've always thought there was more to it but… well I've got no basis for that. Whatever it was my father had, they wanted it badly enough that they were willing to send a group of hunter-nin to chase my father across the continent. He wasn't allowed into the village 'cause of the restrictions on the entrance of shinobi from other villages. They let me in, though, since I was just a baby. The Hokage said that as soon as he left, he was killed by the hunter-nin who had followed him."  
Chōji put his arm around my shoulders and I smiled, returning the half hug. "I'm sorry," he said.  
"It's fine. I've known about it my whole life, and I've got mama and papa now."  
"How do you know all this?" Shikamaru asked. His face was a blank slate, the way it always got when he was deep in thought. "Did the Hokage tell you?"  
"No," I said. "I remember it."  
He blinked at me. "That's impossible, your brain development doesn't allow for the memories from that age to be kept for anywhere near this long."  
"For the longest time I never understood how," I said. "It wasn't until just this mission that I found out it's apparently part of my clan's abilities. Zabuza was the one who told me, the shinobi from Mist that we fought. He called it the 'infamous Kurosawa memory'."  
"So… you can literally remember everything that's ever happened to you?" Shikamaru asked, intrigued by the idea.  
"From the moment I was born, yeah."  
"How come you never… I don't know, talked about it earlier?" Chōji asked.  
"I'm not really supposed to tell people about it," I said hesitantly, measuring my words as they came out of my mouth. "The thing about our clan is that it's kind of a secret to the rest of the world. We don't know why they keep it that way, but up until me, the Hokage said that they believed that the existence of my clan was nothing but a legend - a myth made up to scare the other villages. I think, at least, it's so that if Kiri ever tries to come after me, they won't know who I am? Whatever the reason, I had been asked to keep it quiet, so I did."  
Shikamaru stared at me, fingers twined together and his chin resting on his hands. He was thinking about something. "You're chakra sensitive too, aren't you?"  
I nodded. "Yeah. Kakashi-sensei thinks I'm a sensor type."  
He sighed. "Your clan sounds like they were practically made for infiltration," Shikamaru said. "Highly chakra sensitive shinobi who can be completely invisible to those around them, break into an area without anybody knowing, read any information they wish to and then leave again without actually having to take anything with them. They could get in and out again without anybody knowing."  
"I mean… not completely invisible."  
"Huh?"  
"When we were fighting Zabuza he was able to grab me while I had it active, he knew exactly where I was."  
He knit his eyebrows together, confused. "Could it have just been a wild guess?"  
"No way." I rubbed at my throat just thinking about that fight. Naruto looked away, probably remembering what I was. "He said that he knew how the technique worked and that I obviously knew nothing about my clan."  
The cogs were working in his mind. Moments like these reminded me of how high freakishly smart he actually was. If I remembered correctly, which I probably did, his IQ was currently over 200, high enough to be a certified genius. For him this was all just a puzzle with the pieces laid out and he was determined to get it put back together.  
"Turn it back on."  
I bit my lip, gauging my chakra. I was still pretty low. "Okay, but I can't do it for very long. It takes up a fuckton of chakra."  
I turned it on and carefully counted down from ten in my head, never taking my attention off of my chakra levels. The second I hit ten I turned it off, grateful that I was still sitting because I probably would have collapsed if I was standing up. I grabbed onto Chōji's knee and heaved a breath, blinking away grey.  
"Whoa, you alright?" Chōji asked worriedly.  
"I'm fine," I said tightly. "It just… it takes a lot of chakra. I can only hold it for a minute right now before getting to a point of being dangerously low."  
"So in those ten seconds, you just burned up a sixth of your chakra reserves?"  
"Basically. My father was able to use it for nearly half an hour, but I doubt I'll ever get there on my own."  
"Your chakra control… it's good, isn't it?" Shikamaru asked, clearly holding some kind of hunch about the technique.  
"Well yeah, it's pretty good."  
He hummed thoughtfully. I hadn't expected him to be this interested in the technique, though he seemed to be looking at it more like a mind-game than anything.  
"I wonder if it's some kind of genjutsu," he said. "I know you're pretty horrible with genjutsu in general, which could be some amount of explanation as to why you struggle with this so much."  
I'd considered that it was genjutsu, I really had. It made sense in a lot of regards. The main sticking point was probably that I hadn't actually used the technique enough to know for sure. In the course of when I first discovered the technique and up to about half a year ago, I had barely even used it out of fear that I'd kill myself trying.  
"You could be right, but I honestly don't know that much about the technique. I've barely even used it," I said. "Up until recently when I started actually working on my chakra control I could barely use it for thirty seconds."  
"It's that bad, huh?"  
"After I first used it I was in essentially a comatose state for two weeks and was hospitalized for another week after that. It was also deemed as entirely untestable by the Hokage, which is why there's still not much known about it."  
"Even with your father having been an adult, and male, one minute to half an hour is a huge jump. Did you ever catch him doing hand signs for it?"  
"Well, I only ever saw him use it once and I was a bit too distracted with the fact that my mother had just died to pay attention to that kind of thing." The second the words left my mouth I regretted them. Naruto and Chōji both visibly flinched. I squeezed my eyes shut, cringing at exactly how bad that came out. "Fuck. Sorry, Shika. That came out of nowhere. I'm just… yeah."  
Shikamaru's expression softened a bit. "You're tired."  
"Yeah, but that's not really a good excuse - "  
"It's alright, I'm not mad," he said and stretched out, finally moving out of his thinking pose, signalling the end of the conversation. That was for the best - if we kept on going, I was either going to pass out or say something else stupid. "But I think we all should go to bed."  
A massive yawn erupted from my mouth just thinking about it. I could barely even keep my eyes open. It had been a long day and with my chakra reserves tapped out I was running on fumes. Naruto and I shared my bed, as usual, while Shikamaru and Chōji would share the inflatable mattress that mama and papa must have brought up while I was in the shower.  
I think the intention was for all three of the boys to take the mattress while I had my bed, but one way or another Naruto always ended up in my bed.  
Chōji crawled over to the wall and switched off of my light, leaving the room pitch black except for the faint green glow of 11:26pm from my alarm clock. I curled up beside Naruto, ready to have a good night's sleep for the first time in three weeks.  
.-.-.  
Screaming, everywhere. Trees whipping past us faster than I could comprehend. The tears of not only me, but my father. So many people chasing us. Fear. Overwhelming, absolute fear.  
"Go. Stop wasting time."  
No!  
I bolted upright, choking on my breath. I was sobbing like never before, those deep hard sobs that wracked your entire body and came out in thick, wet gasps.  
"Hey, what - what's wrong?" Naruto demanded in a panic-stricken tone. "Kasumi?"  
"I… uh… I just…" I stammered over the tears and heaving for air.  
It felt like I couldn't breathe. My hands were shaking. Hard.  
Naruto's eyes were wide as saucers, terrified of what was happening. Poor boy. Here we were, at 4am, sitting in my bed, after our first ever mission, and I was having a full-blown breakdown. And he was having to witness it.  
A cold hand rested down on my arm and I jumped up like I'd been slapped. The hand didn't move away, though, staying steady on my arm and holding me still.  
"Kas, hey," Shikamaru said, appearing at the edge of my bed. He must have woken up and noticed what was happening. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Chōji had also gotten up, staring at me worriedly. "Calm down. You're alright."  
I stammered out something that was entirely unintelligible.  
"Stop trying to talk and just breathe."  
It had been a long, long time since I'd last had this nightmare. I'd forgotten how traumatic it was. That was the thing about having a flawless memory like mine - when things came back to haunt you, there was no way of being able to give yourself comfort by saying it was just your imagination. This wasn't my imagination. These things I was being forced to relive were exactly as they happened and somehow, that made all the difference.  
I hoped that one day they'd go away. The optimistic part of me said that they would, but the realist inside of me knew that no matter how much time passed, they'd always come back, one way or another.  
The grip on my arm tightened. "Look at me."  
I jerked my head in his direction and locked eyes with him. His hair was an absolute mess; his voice was still hoarse with sleep; hell, it looked like there was a bit of drool on his shirt; but his eyes held a startling clarity that took me off guard. I raised my hand to cover my mouth and he crawled up into the bed, using the grip he had on my arm to pull me into a tight hug.  
The floodgate really broke then.  
"I'm sorry," I blubbered.  
"Don't apologize, idiot," he said.  
Chōji came up onto my bed to give me a hug from the other side and Naruto squeezed himself in somewhere to create a Kasumi-sandwich. I had no idea how much time passed, but I just let myself sit there and cry. Normally I'd try and put a stop to the tears after a minute or two. I wasn't a big fan of crying, especially in front of other people. Right now though, surrounded by my boys, I didn't even bother and waited it out.  
When I was done I curled up a bit on myself, completely tired out and a little bit embarrassed by the whole thing.  
"You done?" Shikamaru asked.  
I nodded. I laid back down and my head fell onto my pillow with a thump. Naruto did the same, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off of him. He pulled the blankets up high enough that they covered my shoulders, nearly going over my head, blocking out a significant portion of the light the moon was emitting.  
Shikamaru moved to go back down onto the mattress, tired and ready to get back to sleep. Instinctively I grabbed his wrist, pulling him back.  
"Huh?" He looked back at me, blinking owlishly.  
"Can you… you know…"  
"Troublesome," he sighed. He shifted backwards and ducked under the covers.  
I set my gaze on Chōji who was already sitting cross-legged atop his side of the mattress.  
"I don't know if I'll fit up there too," he murmured.  
"Yeah you will," I said. I had a Queen bed, we'd make room. "Please?"  
He smiled softly. "Man, you know I can't resist those puppy-dog eyes."  
I shuffled a bit closer to Naruto, Shikamaru scooted somehow, and Chōji managed to squeeze on with a bit of wiggle room for when we started shifting around in our sleep. It was nice.  
"Thanks," I mumbled, my worlds muffled by the blanket. Three versions of 'no problem' coursed out from the various sections of the bed in return. "Goodnight."  
For the second time that night, I fell asleep, but this time it was into a sweet dream that lulled my mind, giving me truly peaceful slumber for the first time since I left for the mission.


	2. Chapter 15 - 22

CHAPTER FIFTEEN  
.-.-.  
When I woke up in the morning, I was the only person in my bed. It felt odd to wake up in the morning and not feel the pain in my ankle flaring up as it had been - a good kind of odd, but odd nonetheless.  
I let out a groan and rolled over to catch a glimpse of my alarm clock. The numbers of 11:20am stared me in the face. That's surprising. I expected to sleep at least past noon after everything that happened yesterday, but it was probably for the best. Twelve hours was a good amount of sleep anyways. Even if it wasn't, I had the day off, so I could always just take an early bedtime if I really had to.  
Tossing my legs over the edge of my bed I heaved myself up into a standing position, twining my hands together and stretching them as far up as I could, the stress easing off my body with each pop and crack. I didn't care what anybody said - that felt fucking amazing.  
Groggily, I stumbled out of bed and grabbed an elastic on my way out of the door so I could toss my hair into a ponytail. The sounds of mama and papa in the kitchen drifted to my ears as I slipped out my door and wandered into the bathroom to get ready for the day.  
I poured some toothpaste onto my toothbrush and dipped it under the water, dousing it before sticking it in my mouth and cleaning my teeth, still half asleep. Part of me was tempted to go back to bed again. I could get away with it if I really wanted to, but I had other things that I needed to get done today, so I continued on, trying to make myself feel at least a bit more human. I turned, about to close the door, when the conversation going on downstairs caught my attention.  
"… something wrong."  
"They said that it might take her body a few days to really recover."  
"What does she even need to recover from? She's twelve! They shouldn't be having her go out on a first mission that drains her this badly."  
I dropped the tooth and spit out the toothpaste in my mouth, standing at the edge of the stairs curiously.  
"A lot happened."  
"Yeah, but of course, we're not allowed to know what," mama grumbled.  
"Tamaki," papa said. "We knew this was how it was going to be, remember?"  
"Why couldn't she have just stuck to being a civilian?"  
"It's in her blood."  
"I know, and I've supported her the entire time, I've been proud of what she's done. I always will be, you know that," mama said. "I guess part of me just hoped that she'd graduate, experience all of this training and work for real and just… stop wanting it."  
"Of course I know that," papa said. "I wanted her to run the restaurant eventually, too, but that's just not her. We didn't raise her to be a quitter. She's always wanted to be a shinobi and she always will, you and I both know that she wouldn't be happy running the restaurant."  
I slipped down the stairs silently, standing just out of their view.  
"I know," mama said. "This still just seems wrong."  
"It's her first mission, things were bound to be a bit rough and go off track."  
Mama rubbed her face tiredly - she looked exhausted. "Not like this, though!" she cried. "They were gone for three whole weeks and you know she was lying to us when she said that she was just at the hospital to talk to that medic-nin. They were healing her, I know it. She's hiding it from us."  
"This is exactly why she's hiding it from us," papa reasoned.  
"She's still hiding it from us!"  
"We've been warned all along the way that this was going to be a dangerous thing for her to do," papa said. "We knew that it was going to be like this."  
Mama let out an exasperated noise. "I know I just… I'm worried."  
"I am too," papa said. "But we can't let her know that."  
"They said that it starts out small," mama said. "Stupid little things like getting cats and running errands, not three week long missions that leave her out cold for two days!"  
My hand went up to my mouth. Two days. I should have known, I had used up a fair amount of chakra and was generally exhausted after everything that happened. I mean at least it explained where the boys had went but I didn't even feel like I'd spent two days recovering.  
"Things happen," papa said. "They can't predict everything that happens."  
"Why are you defending this so much?"  
"Because she needs us on her side, no matter what." Papa moved to stand behind mama, his hands on her shoulders. "We've it this far, we might as well take it to the end."  
"I know, I just…" I heard a small sniff from mama. "I just don't want to have to bury my baby."  
"You won't have to, you've heard what her sensei has said," papa murmured. "She's extremely talented and advanced for her age. Naruto's always going to be with her, and her sensei is one of the most powerful shinobi in our village. She's in good hands. Besides, she's only a genin. What she went on is as difficult as it'll get for a little while."  
"Kami… I hope so," mama whispered, her voice cracking. "I just… I just need her to be okay, Eiji."  
"I know, love."  
I turned and darted up the stairs, defiantly ignoring the tears that were burning the corners of my eyes. I couldn't face them right now. Barely paying attention I tossed on an old t-shirt and some leggings, scribbling out a note to mama and papa just in case before darting out my window, wanting to be anywhere but at home.  
.-.-.  
I wandered around the village aimlessly for Kami knows how long. It was nice to just be up and walking, so I appreciated that for what it was, letting the noise of the crowds drown out anything else. Sometimes, the best thing to do was absolutely nothing at all. That was all I could handle. Right now, I was a ticking time-bomb emotionally.  
Eventually, I settled on doing at least something productive that day and made my way to the Nara compound. I had never gotten a chance to make an antidote for the nasty little concoction I'd made while I was on the mission. What better time than now? Before I could even consider putting it to use I had to have an antidote on hand. There were a few different possibilities, but since I had came up with the poison recipe on my own I was going to have to figure it out myself.  
I approached the gates and smiled at the guards. They recognized me, opening the gates without a single word. I practically ran through the compound, avoiding anybody I could manage. It only took about five minutes to get all the way through the housing areas and into the forested areas where there was nobody but the deer to bother me.  
The shack was a fair way into the forest. The first couple of times I came out, I had to have Shikamaru wait with me while I was in there otherwise I would have gotten lost on the way out. Even still, months later, on a bad day, I'd get lost and have to flare my chakra in hopes of somebody coming to my rescue.  
I didn't have that problem this time.  
The small little wooden structure became visible from amongst the trees, a welcome sight for sore eyes. I trudged the rest of the way through the area and opened the door, flicking the switch up and illuminating the room. It wasn't luxurious, but it was functional.  
Rather than reach for the herbs right off the bat, I grabbed pen, a piece of paper, and sat down at my desk, thinking. There was no point in just tossing stuff into a pot and saying 'fuck it!'. That was a waste of time and materials. Instead I took a second to think on it. It wasn't so much picking stuff out of thin air, but a process of elimination. My thumb went onto the middle of the notebook and the seal released, the book falling open in front of me, each page filled with the familiar English language.  
The poison that I was looking to have an antidote was a fast-acting poison, so whatever antidote I had needed to go directly into the bloodstream. That meant liquid. Mentally, I crossed out some of the options. It also, most often at least, hit the kidney first, so it was probably best that I included something to help with that.  
I put my heel up on the edge of the table and tipped my chair back a bit as I thought it over. The tip of my pen unconsciously went into my mouth. Slowly, I wrote down a multitude of different combinations, each with roughly four different ingredients. Some had more, some had less. Each of them sounded just as annoyingly difficult to manage as the next. Most of the types of plans I needed to include had at least two volatile plants that would be a nightmare to deal with.  
From this point on, it became trial and error.  
I sighed and dropped my feet from the edge of the table, letting the chair rock back onto the ground. The rest of the equipment wasn't much of a problem. After sweeping the desk clean I pulled down the pestle from the top shelf and set it down in the middle of the table. I went to start getting the ingredients ready when I realized that most of it was too rare to be kept on stock. All I actually had in here were the basics, simple binding ingredients that were easy to get ahold of. The things that grew locally and I was able to just get for myself.  
My hand raked through my hair that had fallen away from the ponytail I had put it in this morning. I had been told two weeks without chakra for good reason, I knew that. Already last night I had disobeyed that, using way more chakra than I should have, so what was one more little mess up, right?  
"Last time," I muttered to myself.  
I made the hand seals and slammed my hand down on the table. Keiko appeared in front of me, looking just as happy as she had last time I summoned her.  
"Mistress!" she chirped. "Pleasure to see you."  
"Hi Keiko," I replied.  
"How are you feeling, Mistress?"  
"Better," I said. "I got help from a medic-nin to fix my ankle."  
"Lovely to hear," she said. She glanced around, taking in her new surroundings. "What is it you have called me here for?"  
"I need you to get me some herbs… and a lot of them."  
"Not a problem! What do you need?"  
I crossed my arms, closing my eyes and bringing up a mental list of what I needed. "Taraxacum officinale, bambucus nigra, eucalyptus globulus, equisetum arvense, piper methysticum, curcuma longa, and triticum aestivum," I listed off, tapping my toe with each plant. "Can you get all that?"  
"Of course, Mistress," she said and disappeared, off on an adventure of gathering a mass amount of herbs. I went back to getting the room set up.  
I moved the pestle over and got the small burner I had in there lit, placing the pot on it. I reached under the table and used the jug I kept there to fill half the pot with water. That would take a bit to get properly heated. More than enough time for me to prep everything else.  
After ten or so minutes Keiko popped back in and a massive basket joined her.  
"Incredible, thank you," I breathed, already sifting through to see how much of everything she had brought with her. "This is perfect!"  
"Glad to be of service, Mistress." She inclined her head. "If you don't need anything else, I'll be off!"  
"Yeah this is all I need, thanks."  
She gave a soft, satisfied bark and took her leave.  
I opened the drawer from the table and pulled out my gloves. They were made specifically for handling poisons, so they were tough, though mine were already stained and well worn after only a few short months. I slipped them on and got to prepping what I needed.  
Each recipe needed different parts of each plant, different amounts of it, and an overall combination that required a solid hour of work. There was a lot to do. It was tedious but easy, a quick hour to go past. I didn't mind it much. I mean, I couldn't - if you didn't have the patience for this kind of work, your time as a poison maker would be very short.  
I took a step back and admired my work. Now, for the hard part.  
At first it went well. I thought I had gotten lucky on my first try. Well, until it quite literally exploded. I had just put in the last ingredient, went to stir it, and in a burst of black smoke a loud bang erupted from the room. To make things better, it wasn't just a cloud of black smoke - it was a cloud of toxic blacksmoke.  
I opened the door and let the smoke spill out of the cabin, waving my hand in front of my face, hacking heavily. I yanked down my mask that I had raised as soon as smoke erupted from the pot and took in a few grateful gulps of fresh air. After a couple of minutes I went back into the room and used a simple wind release to clear out any smoke lingering.  
The mix in the pot was a rather nasty looking green. I grabbed it and took it outside, dumping it into the dumpster that the Nara's had brought back when they realized there was nowhere for me to put my failed attempts. You couldn't exactly throw these kinds of things into the trash. Most of them would probably just melt right through. I took the pot back inside with me and sanitised it in the sink before giving the antidote another shot.  
My next attempt was a failure, though nowhere near as spectacular. There was also a couple more explosions, both rivaling the first, sadly. The worst fail out of them all though was definitely on my third attempt where it quite literally melted the pot and all of the wood that was underneath it. Anybody who said making poison was boring obviously had never actually tried it. By the end of the day, I was definitely glad that I had just worn plain old clothes because I smelt horrible and this had been a very messy day.  
I had gone back to the drawing board, sitting at my desk again, when Shikamaru popped by for a visit.  
"What're you doing?"  
I started, tipping back in my chair. My limbs flew out in all directions as I flailed, but to no avail, landing in a heap on the ground. "Fuck, Shika!"  
He snorted. "Sorry," he said, not looking even remotely apologetic.  
I sighed, just staying there, limbs splayed out around me, not having the energy to gather myself up. "What are you doing all the way out here?"  
He almost never came out here. It was 'too troublesome', as he had said. He wasn't all that wrong, it was a bit of a trek to actually get here, even from his house, which was closest in the entire Nara compound.  
"Mom wanted me to come out and make sure you hadn't blown yourself up," he said, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe and staring down at me, one eyebrow raised.  
"She was actually able to get you all the way out here?" I paused, thinking on that again. "Wait, I'm not that surprised. Your mom scares the shit out of me."  
"She does that to most people."  
"Well, here I am, not blown up… though I did give it my best shot."  
He looked around the room, mildly impressed. "I could see the black smoke from my house."  
I held up three fingers. "I had three separate attempts blow up on me."  
"Jeez. How long have you been here?" he asked.  
"No idea."  
"Mom has dinner ready, if you're hungry."  
At the mere thought of food my stomach let out a massive growl. My hand fell onto my stomach, raising my head to glare at it. Traitor.  
His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "How long has it been since you've eaten?"  
"I sorta… haven't eaten yet today?"  
It didn't take a genius to figure out that that was a red flag. I may not have been on Naruto levels of loving food, but I wasn't the type to miss meals.  
"Troublesome," Shikamaru drawled. "What's wrong?" Despite being inherently lazy, he gave great advice, and didn't typically let his laziness get in the way of helping out all of us when we had a problem.  
I didn't say anything, instead setting my jaw and letting my eyes close.  
He probably just figured it was my nightmares still bugging me.  
After a minute or so Shikamaru came into the shack and fell down on the ground beside me. We lay like that for a bit. I stared up at the ceiling, eventually shuffling closer to him and pushing up against his side. I sighed, thinking back to what mama and papa had said.  
"I heard mama and papa talking this morning after I woke up…" I finally said. "They were really worried."  
He made a noise in the back of his throat to indicate that he was listening.  
"Mama… mama knows that I lied about what happened with the medic-nin. She was a lot more worried than papa I think. I mean I don't really blame them… but it just… seems like they're starting to second guess letting me be a shinobi."  
"'Cause of this mission you went on?"  
"Partially but… I think in some ways they've always been hesitant, they just never showed it to me," I said. Mama and papa had always been able to roll with the punches and take everything as it came, but now I was starting to wonder. How much of it had just been them trying to seem like they were okay with it?  
"What else did they say?"  
I chewed my lip. "They talked about wanting me to take over the restaurant eventually."  
He laughed. "I can't see you running the restaurant," he said. "You'd probably burn the place down."  
"Exactly, that's what papa said," I replied, shaking my head. "I don't mind helping out when I have time and stuff but it's just not for me, y'know?"  
"I get what you mean. Well... mom and dad have never wanted me to not be a shinobi, but still," he said. "I get the general idea."  
My stomach unleashed another vicious growl. I groaned. "Stop being such a baby," I said, narrowing my eyes at my belly.  
Shikamaru sighed and heaved himself up from the ground, extending his hand down to me. "Let's go get dinner. Mom would murder me if she found out that I left you here after not having anything to eat yet today."  
I grasped it, letting him yank me to my feet and lead me back to his house.  
.-.-.  
"Hi Mrs. Nara," I called as I stepped through the back door, slipping off my shoes as I went.  
Yoshino walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands off with a towel as she made her way over, a smile on her face. "Hello Kasumi. How are you feeling?"  
"Not too bad," I replied.  
She reached over and gave me a hug, scrunching her nose as she pulled away. "What in the world is that smell?" she asked.  
I rubbed my arm embarrassedly. "I had a few… failed experiments."  
"I could hear," she said.  
"Really?" I laughed. "You guys could hear it this far away?"  
"Indeed. I was a little worried, but Shikaku said you were probably fine. Whether he was just saying that because he didn't feel like checking up on you or he actually meant it, I don't know," she said, tossing a severe look her husband's way.  
Shikaku withered in his seat, shogi piece in hand. The board was set up just to the side of the dinner table. It looked like Shikamaru and his father had been in the middle of a match when he was sent down to get me.  
"Well, I can assure you, I'm fine," I said. "Though I can't say the same for some of my equipment."  
"What were you trying to do?" Shikaku asked absently, the majority of his attention was still lingering on the board in front of him.  
"I made a fairly potent poison on the mission, but I just sort of threw it together on my own, so I've been trying to come up with an antidote."  
"What's in it?"  
"Belladonna, arnica, and apple of sodom."  
He chuckled and raised an eyebrow. "That'll do the job for sure," he said. "What did you try as an antidote?"  
"I mean… there's a ton of things that I have to try still, but so far all of them are just some kind of combination of taraxacum officinale, bambucus nigra, eucalyptus globulus, equisetum arvense, piper methysticum, curcuma longa, and triticum aestivum."  
The chuckle turned into a full out laugh. "Kami no wonder it sounded like a fireworks display back there."  
Yoshino reached over and smacked him upside the head. "Don't be rude."  
He rolled his eyes. "Jeez, woman," he muttered. He finally turned from the board and looked at me, stroking his goatee thoughtfully. "You could try adding some cnicus benedictus, Arctium lappa, or Larrea tridentata to try and bind it together a bit better. You're not wrong in your choices with that antidote, they're just all a bit too strong. You need to balance your antidotes. They need to be powerful, yes, but they also can't be too powerful or they'll cause more harm than good."  
"Mhm… thanks for the advice," I said, already thinking through some new ideas. "I've never had to actually make my own antidote before, I've always just been able to get them from out of the books I've got."  
He smirked. "This is the time where you have to live and learn - you'll never learn what doesn't work without destroying a pot or two."  
I looked down at my shirt sadly, poking my finger through one of the new holes. "And an outfit or two."  
Yoshino hummed. "There should be something of yours hiding upstairs. Why don't you go change and get cleaned up, then you can come have some dinner."  
"Thanks," I said. I moved towards the steps before I stopped, my eye catching the clock on the kitchen counter. It was already 5pm. "Oh…"  
"What's wrong, dear?" Yoshino asked.  
"I uh… mama and papa," I said. "I should probably tell them that I'm here."  
"They already know."  
"Huh?"  
"They called earlier just to make sure you were here," she said.  
"Oh."  
"You had them worried, running off like that," she said. "Even if you left a note you still should be a bit more considerate of your parents."  
"Mom - " Shikamaru started. Anything he had to say withered when his mother shot him a severe look.  
"They care about you more than you think."  
I looked down a little, a sudden wave of guilt running through me. "I know."  
Her voice softened a little. "Now go on, get yourself cleaned up."  
My good mood taken down a notch I trailed upstairs, promising myself that I'd have a talk with mama and papa as soon as I got home.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER SIXTEEN  
.-.-.  
After dinner, Shikamaru and I hung out in the living room and watched movies. I was definitely done for the day with trying to figure out anything about that antidote - I was done trying to do anything constructive, actually. Choji came over later on too. I had wanted Naruto over also, but he said he had a prank that he wanted to pull so I just left it. I knew from experience when he got into mischief it was best to not get involved.  
I tossed a handful of popcorn into my mouth and laughed.  
We were watching horror movies. It was hard to take any of it really seriously because of how over-the-top and dramatic the gore was.  
"I don't think you're supposed to laugh," Shikamaru said.  
"Look, it's ridiculous!" I laughed and pointed at the screen. At that moment the man plunged a saw into one of his poor victims and laughed maniacally, as villains only ever did in films. "Blood doesn't just… do anything like that!"  
Cho let out a whimper from his spot between the two of us, the noise muffled by a pillow he was clinging onto for dear life. I turned my head to him and muffled a laugh. He only whimpered louder and Shika took the opportunity to admire the sun setting outside while he suppressed an amused smirk.  
"Come on don't laugh!" Cho cried indignantly. "You know I don't like horror movies."  
I curled my legs beneath me and lay my head on his shoulder. "Oh, don't worry. No shinobi would be stupid enough to use something as impractical as a hand saw." I put my lips right beside his ears. "They'll just get you in the night."  
He squealed and curled up into the fetal position.  
I fell back, cackling with laughter, popcorn spilling from the bowl perched on my lap.  
"You're cruel," Shika said, unable to shake the grin from his face.  
"Yeah, I am aren't I." Wiping a stray tear from my eye I revelled in the immense feeling of content, the happiest I'd been in weeks.  
.-.-.  
The next morning I wandered down to the hospital rather than go home. I ended up staying the night at Shika's, not ready to sleep entirely on my own again. The stress of the mission was over but I didn't want to find myself having another episode like the night before without somebody there to calm me down. Not to mention, I wasn't quite ready to face mama and papa yet.  
It was a nice walk. Sundays in Konoha were typically quiet and peaceful, and this morning was no exception, few people milling about the streets. My legs felt kind of weird still after not having been able to walk properly for two weeks. I was getting used to it, though I was finding myself tripping up on small rocks that no self-respecting shinobi ever should.  
I walked up to the hospital and smiled as my eyes wandered across the gorgeous gardens that surrounded it. By far, this was my favourite part of the hospital, and the only thing that made me think it might not be so bad to work as a medic-nin. Kakashi-sensei said that it was there to calm down shinobi coming in from their missions and that it was used as a place for patients to go for therapy. Not much of a surprise, really - even just looking at it from here put a bit of warmth in my chest.  
The doors swung open for me and I wandered up to the front desk. The guy who was working there was on the phone, chatting to one of the doctors, so I waited patiently, hands settled on the desk and my chin resting on my hands. He spoke for a couple more minutes before he hung up the phone and turned his eye to me.  
He took in my obviously casual posture, and deeming that there was no emergency, a vague amount of annoyance crept into his gaze. "What do you need?"  
"One of the medic-nin here wanted to talk to me, but I don't know her name. She treated me a few days ago."  
The guy pushed his chair back and rolled over to a large cabinet that was tucked into the corner of the front-area. "Name?"  
"Himura, Kasumi."  
He rifled through a few of the files and pulled out one of them. His eyes scanned the page until it landed on what I could only assume was the name of my medic-nin. "She's here today, I'll call her up." He rolled his chair back over to the PA mic. "Akane Ikeda, come to the front desk please. Akane Ikeda."  
"Thanks," I murmured.  
He nodded. "No problem. She'll come up when she's not occupied with a patient."  
I walked over to the nearest chair and plopped down, swinging my legs around. With nothing else to think about, my mind finally wandered to the old woman. Litania. Definitely not a Japanese name, nor really a name of any ethnicity I could recognize. I'd started to wonder if she even belonged to any ethnicity I recognize. As crazy as it sounded, I'd begun to consider the fact that she might not even be human.  
She knew my name and that it no longer belonged to me. She knew my language. Above all, she knew of my memories, and very intentionally made me aware of it. She toyed with me in a way that made me wonder if the reason she didn't have a chakra signature, something every living creature had, was because she was not like any living creature I'd ever seen before. I mean, considering I had literally been brought back from the dead, there was clearly more to this world than I was aware of.  
That gave me no answer as to why she chose that time to speak to me and bring this new development to my attention.  
"Hey, Kasumi," a voice called from off in the distance.  
I blinked rapidly, torn from my thoughts. Akane was waving at me from the front desk, hair tied up and clipboard in hand, a small smile on her face.  
"Hi Akane, sorry I didn't come right away."  
She started walking away, motioning for me to follow. "Don't worry about it, I didn't expect for you to come right away anyways, considering how tired you were when you left," she said. I had to almost run just to keep up with her. "I've kept all the books in my locker for when you came by to grab them."  
We worked our way through the winding halls, her marching through the halls she's so familiar with and me chasing as fast as my tiny legs could manage without full on running or using chakra. She seemed to notice my struggle and slowed her pace a little.  
"So how are you feeling?" she asked, breaking the silence.  
"Not bad," I said. "I knocked out for two days after we got back and I've just been taking it easy for today… aside from this little workout."  
She snorted. "If you're lying, don't doubt that I'll hunt down your sensei and get you in trouble."  
"You wouldn't…"  
"I would."  
"I'm a good girl I do as I'm told, okay?"  
"So if I were to take a look at your chakra coils, right here and now, I wouldn't see that they'd been used recently, right?"  
I didn't say anything, just sighed. Suddenly she turned on her heel and faced one of the lockers lining the side of the hallway, so abruptly that I smacked straight into her back, nearly falling on my ass. Akane gave me a smile that was half apologetic and half amused.  
She sifted through the locker before pulling out a hefty stack of books, the brightly coloured spines catching my eye. The Chakra Points of the Body, Advanced Human Anatomy, Advanced Medical Ninjutsu Techniques, Keeping Peace and Mind in Battle and in the Workplace. I reached out for them but she held them back.  
"Promise me you'll keep yourself from training," she said. "I'm serious kid, you can't go making this worse."  
This is the second time in the last week somebody had used books as a way get to me. I really hoped this wouldn't become a trend.  
"Yeah, yeah, fine."  
She moved the books further from my reach and gave me a look. "Come on."  
I rolled my eyes and scrunched up my face in annoyance. "Alright, I promise I won't do any training."  
Satisfied, she smiled and handed the books to me. "Better. My phone number's also written on the inside of one of the books for when you're done or if you have any questions." She dropped a hand on my head to ruffle my hair and moved it down to my shoulders, turning me around and giving me a bit of a push. "Now off you go, I gotta get back to work. You've taken up enough of my time."  
"Thanks Akane," I called as I walked my way out of the hospital, intent on getting myself home to sort things out with mama and papa.  
.-.-.  
I ended up at the park rather than at my house. I'd started to go home, then I saw a nice looking tree, the gorgeous weather, and I couldn't resist settling down for the rest of the afternoon. That and I had no idea what to say to mama and papa.  
I'd started flipping through the books she gave me out of curiosity and was actually finding it pretty interesting. It was the book on keeping control of your nerves in battle, explaining the importance of psychology for those who were medic-nins. A lot of the book was spent explaining that if you kept yourself calm and collected then your patient would be more at ease and have a better chance of responding to your treatments. There was nothing inherently groundbreaking in the book, but it was a good read nonetheless.  
I sighed, the book split open on my legs and my back firmly planted against the tree. Off to my left I could see people training, the ever so slight sound of metal clashing and voices shouting only audible if I strained my ear. I was aching to train. I never thought I'd be one of those shinobi to throw myself back into my training but I felt an itch in my muscles at the sight of others doing it. My weights were still sitting in my bag, where they'd been since I broke my ankle. Getting used to wearing those again was going to suck. With a scowl, I forced my attention back to the book I had open to keep my attention off training.  
"I'm guessing you haven't gone home yet."  
"Nope."  
Shika sat down beside me, eyeing up the stack of books. "You have to go talk to them eventually, Kas."  
"Obviously I know that," I sighed. "I'm just… you know."  
"They'll hear you out when you talk to them. Trust me."  
I looked over at him and he gave me a reassuring half-smile, a toothpick hanging from his bottom lip. "I don't even know what to say," I murmured.  
He shrugged. "Just tell them how you feel."  
A groan escaped my lips and I rubbed my face tiredly - it was barely even noon and I already was ready to just go to sleep for the night. "It's not that easy!"  
"Why not?"  
"Just… 'cause, you know."  
"You haven't even tried yet."  
I frowned. "Where's Cho? He's better at this mushy feelings stuff."  
"I did pretty well yesterday."  
"You're good at listening, I'll give you that."  
He sighed in a way that told me if his eyes had been open, he'd be rolling them at me. "He's training with his dad," he said. "Just take my advice and go talk to your parents."  
"You're not helpful."  
"What did I do?"  
"Nothing, that's exactly why you're not helpful."  
"Troublesome," he muttered. "Why don't you bug your sensei, he's probably got some wisdom in that old head of his."  
"Huh, that's actually a good idea."  
"Don't sound so surprised," he grunted.  
I snorted. "Did I hurt your poor little ego?"  
"Shove off."  
"Oh, poor wittle Shika, his wittle feewings were hurt," I cooed in my best baby voice and pinched his cheeks.  
He swatted away at my hands and fixed me with a lazy glare. "Cut it out."  
"But why you have deez wittle bitty cheeks."  
"Why are you so annoying?"  
"It's a gift," I said and righted myself, giving him a solid pat on the cheek as I gathered my books and went on my way.  
As I went on my way to hunt down my sensei I glanced back, an evil smile worming its way on my face as I watched him rub his cheek with a disgruntled look. Ah, being a nuisance would never get old.  
.-.-.  
After wandering around for a couple of hours, I got annoyed of carrying around my books and dropped by Naruto's house to dump them while I searched out more advice. Naruto's apartment building was in a bit of a run-down area but most people there had gotten used to him after all these years and just left him alone.  
I set down my books in front of his door and tried the knob, but for the first time ever, I actually found the door locked. I paused for a moment. If Naruto were to put a key, where would he put it? Using the books as leverage I swept my hand against the top section of the door but there wasn't anything there.  
If not up, try down.  
Beneath my feet was a mangy old matt. I jumped off and moved my books aside, lifting the matt to find, as I figured, a battered old silver key sitting there. I juggled the key in the lock and the door swung open with a small creak and revealed to me the disgusting depths of Naruto's house.  
The first thing to hit me was the smell.  
It smelt of old laundry that had been left too long and dishes that had gone rotten. I flicked on the light and was relieved to see the damage wasn't too terrible; it was still dirtier than anything I'd ever live in, but he was a boy after all, and he had nobody to nag on him to keep the place looking decent. If I was going to stash my shit here, I might as well do him a favor in return. I made my way in, stepping over the piles of clothes and boxers as I went. I swept some of the stuff to the side on what was supposed to be a desk and left my books there, looking around me and trying to establish a plan.  
"Okay," I said to myself. "First garbage."  
I went under his kitchen sink, ignoring the stench seeping from it, and grabbed the garbage bin that was thankfully there. I puttered around the room, picking up the stray wrappers and old containers littering the floor and desks. With gritted teeth I ducked under his bed and used some kind of spatula… thing… I found in his kitchen drawers and cleaned out whatever was living there. Satisfied I had gotten enough I tied off the bag and stashed it back in his sink. That was a major improvement.  
Snagging the laundry basket that was discarded off in the side of his room and a pair of tongs I picked my way through the room, grabbing anything that was on the floor. Most of it looked like it was the clothes he had worn on the mission. It was like he had gotten home from the mission and decided cleaning was too much of a hassle. Whatever. The distraction was a welcomed one.  
Naruto came home just as I was in the process of checking his sheets to see if they needed to be cleaned. He opened the door, a look of confusion spreading across his features - I'd be more weary than confused if I found a door I had locked was unlocked when I returned.  
"You really shouldn't leave your key in such an easy spot to find," I called from my place in the corner.  
"Why are you in my room?" He took a glance around. "Why did you clean my room?"  
"I needed someplace to put my books and this room grossed me out."  
"I was going to clean it eventually," he said indignantly. "I was just tired from the mission."  
I couldn't help but smirk. If I could claim anything in this life, I could claim I knew the behavioural habits of the young Naruto Uzumaki.  
"Yeah, well, I beat you to it."  
Silently he padded into the room and glanced around. I continued on, pulling sharply at the corners of the mattress to free the sheets from it. "Your sheets are stupid."  
He picked up one of his shirts and looked over at me. "Are you ok?"  
Taken off guard by the question I turned to look at him, bed cover still in hand. I realized that I hadn't actually seen him since I'd had a breakdown in front of him at 4am. "What?"  
He shrugged sheepishly. "You seem upset."  
My arms fell down at my side. "What makes you say that?"  
"You always try and distract yourself when you're upset."  
Even though Naruto was different than he had been in the show, having grown up with more friends and all that, it still surprised me sometimes how observant he could be. "It's nothing," I said. I yanked the rest of his bed coverings off the mattress and handed them to him, my nose scrunched up. "Go wash these while I start cleaning up the stuff in the sink."  
He took the blankets from my arms, tossing them into a basket on the side of the room. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" he asked.  
I gave him an appreciative smile. "Yeah, but thanks."  
Just like that, he went back to his usual, obnoxiously loud and lovable self, chattering on about all of the stuff he did while I was busy. I listened as he talked, washing off the dishes in his sink while he was busy cleaning up the chaos that was his closet. Apparently I'd missed out on quite the exciting prank that he'd managed to pull on some poor Jonin who'd just been trying to enjoy a peaceful lunch. It was a wonder that the boy had never been caught by any of the shinobi he was so fond of pulling pranks on.  
Thankfully, he had wood floors, so there wasn't much to do with cleaning that, just a simple mop and we were done. His room looked a lot better, that's for sure. It was normally fairly clean anyways, but it looked especially good from both of us going at it. I put my hands on my hips and stared proudly at my work. "We did good."  
"Yeah, thanks!" he said, giving me a goofy grin.  
I looked at the clock, shocked at how already it was now 3:30pm.  
"Oh shit," I said. "I gotta get going."  
"Where you heading?"  
"I need to talk to Kakashi-sensei about something," I answered, already heading for the door. I turned, my hand still on the knob, and asked, "Have you seen him anywhere?"  
Naruto shook his head. "Nope."  
"Guess I just have to track him down the hard way," I muttered. It would be good practice for myself anyways. I gave Naruto a little wave over my shoulder and ran down the stairs, flying through the front entrance and immediately launching myself upwards onto the nearest roof.  
I remember watching the show, after all the big missions, how all of the cast would come back completely banged up, yet still go straight back to doing their training. I always thought how dumb of them to ignore the medic-nin. Now though, now I understood. When you spend all your days training and fighting and moving, it was almost jarring to have to spend any kind of extended period of time without doing so.  
My muscles were practically begging me to give them a push.  
The chakra swirling in my body was fighting to get free.  
It was in our blood, it's not the kind of thing you can just… stop doing.  
From my spot on the roof I sat down, cross legged, and closed my eyes, loosening up my senses to feel what was around me. I wanted to work on increasing the amount of distance I could feel around me. It would be a slow process, but with a little bit of work each day, it was hard to say exactly how far I could start to stretch my perception to.  
On the edge of my senses, I felt something though. It wasn't Kakashi-sensei or Naruto or anybody not any kind of signature I recognized, in fact, just a reasonably powerful signature, at least Jonin level. The intent of it wasn't malicious. I opened my eyes, looking in the direction of the signature, squinting my eyes against the distance. There didn't seem to be anything there even if I knew that there actually was somebody. I reopened my senses, and while I could see their chakra, I couldn't see there body.  
Curiously, I rested my chin on my hand, staring intently at what appeared to me as empty air. The signature shifted a little in what I could only assume was discomfort at having my gaze locked on it. "I know you're there."  
There was half a beat where I actually started to doubt myself until a body appeared on a rooftop 20 metres away, an ANBU mask covering their face. Huh. An ANBU tab was put on me. I didn't know what I had expected, but that certainly wasn't it.  
"Do you know where Kakashi is?"  
"No idea, kid," the guy said, actually sounding half amused.  
I frowned. That threw a bit of a wrench in my plan. I had no idea where his house was, and even if I did that was a little bit weird, to just show up at his house asking for advice. Not that I was entirely above that, but I had at least a little bit of self respect. "Am I allowed to know why you're following me?"  
"Protection, but that's all you need to know."  
In other words, that's the only information my little Genin self was privy to.  
I blinked at him. Once. Twice. Despite what he had said, I couldn't keep myself from saying, "The fuck do I need protecting from?"  
"None of your business."  
"Fuck, whatever dude," I muttered.  
The guy actually had the audacity to snort at me. "You're as colourful as Kakashi said you are."  
"Good to know my lovely, wise sensei is spreading rumours about me." I stood up and stretched like a cat, moving my arms all the way above my head to simultaneously pop the various joints of my back into place. "Feel free to go back to whatever you were doing before."  
He disappeared again, though I could feel that he was still there. I couldn't help but wonder how boring it was to have to tail a little thirteen year old girl around for the entirety of her day.  
I took off across the rooftops with my senses open, waiting for the distinctive signature of my sensei to show up on my radar. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. After about ten minutes of flying across the rooftops, a sensation that I had dearly missed, I felt him standing below me, inside a cafe.  
I hopped down off the side, landing a little roughly on the concrete. I rounded the corner and peered through the window of the shop. As I thought, there he was, sitting at one of the tables, quietly sipping at his drink and reading one of his usual books.  
The door dinged as I walked into the coffee shops. It was one of my favourites, actually, a lovely little shop with high quality coffee and staff that didn't give me weird looks when I ordered. Thankfully I actually had a little bit of money in my pocket. I walked up to the counter and waited for the girl behind it to turn around.  
"Welcome to - oh, Kasumi! How are you, we haven't seen you in a little while!" the girl said, a soft smile on her face.  
"Hey Sango, I'm good," I said. "I had a mission, so I was gone for a little bit."  
"Well good to see you're back safe and sound," she replied. "Your usual?"  
"'Course," I said and handed her the money.  
"It'll be a couple of minutes, so why don't you just settle down at a table and I'll bring it over to you."  
"Thanks."  
I shuffled over to Kakashi-sensei's table. He moved his gaze up and the little crinkle in the corner of his eye gave away his smile. "Hey kid."  
"Hey," I said. "I didn't peg you as the coffee type."  
He gave a noncommittal noise. "I don't like it as much as you, but I can't say I hate it. This is the only cafe I ever go to, though." His glance shifted from the coffee, flickering to the girl, more specifically her lower area, making my drink behind the counter for a split second. "Everything in here is quite nice."  
I glanced over at Sango, who was, by all accounts, a beautiful young girl. "Are you talking about the coffee shop or the barista's ass?" He choked on the drink, apparently not ready for my comments. "Oh, come on. You haven't seen me in, what, three days? And you stopped expecting me to say shit like that?"  
"How rude of me to forget my young Genin has the mouth of a sailor."  
"Damn right it is."  
I don't know what made him do it but something about what I said made him lower his book and take a good, hard look at me. "Is something wrong?"  
I screwed up my face in annoyance. "Seriously, do I look that upset? You're like the third person in the past couple of days to ask me that."  
"Hate to tell you kid but you're a bit of an open book."  
"Awesome."  
"So what's up?"  
I crossed my arms against my chest, slouching in my chair. "Remember how you told me that I shouldn't lie to my parents about being treated by a medic-nin?"  
"Am I going to get to say 'I told you so'?"  
I glared at him and he raised his hands in surrender. "Anyways. Well we went home, and I didn't lie to them, but I just sort of… left certain things out."  
"Omission is the same as lying."  
"Are you going to let me talk or are you just going to be a smug asshole about it?"  
"Alright, alright, sorry."  
I ended up just telling him what mama and papa had been saying. To his credit, he did actually put his book down and listen. After I finished I heaved a sigh. "I just… I'm not sure what to do. I know I wasn't supposed to hear them even talking about it, I wish I had just pretended that I had never even heard it."  
"No offence, kid, but why is this bugging you so bad?"  
God, how to even put that into words.  
Looking back on growing up in the Academy, nobody believed in me. I was the civilian kid who was too short and weak to keep up with the other students. Running laps, I'd come in dead last. I may have tested well but in the shinobi world, actions certainly spoke louder than words, and in my initial years there my actions were quiet as a mouse. Even some of the parents weren't above making fun of a little kid who was just trying their best.  
At the end of the day, though, I could go to mama and papa, and they'd be there to tell me how proud they were of me, how happy they were for me, how they knew that no matter what, I could do it. Hearing that despite everything they said to me, deep down, they really just wanted me to quit it all and run the restaurant? It hurt. It stung deep down in the one place that few comments ever truly did, the place that was reserved for the truth that nobody wants to tell you.  
"I guess… I don't know. They're the only people who've ever actually thought I could do all of this, even when I didn't think I could. It's just… hearing that the only people you thought always had faith in you maybe don't have as much faith as you thought they did sucks."  
"You sure are quick to discount your friends," he said.  
"That's not fair," I said.  
He shrugged. "You said they were the only ones to think you could do it, but what about Naruto? Or the Nara and Akimichi boys? I'm sure that they always knew you could do it."  
"Yeah, I know they did - still do - and I love them for it," I murmured. "It's just…"  
His eyes softened a little. "Not the same?"  
I nodded, hands curled around the cup of coffee. "It just makes me wonder, you know? About all of this?" I waved my hand in a general motion, eyes downcast.  
A little sigh puffed out through his mask. "For what it's worth, kid, I think you're cut out for this."  
"Yeah?"  
"It's in your blood like they said. You were born for this work, and you've got the drive to see it through as long as you can keep yourself focused. Don't let your confidence sit on the shoulders of others, 'cause then you're just setting yourself up to fail."  
As usual, he was right.  
I couldn't help but chuckle a little even though there was nothing funny about what he said. "How old did you say you were?"  
"Old enough to tell you to mind your own business."  
"I won't stop asking 'till you tell me. With all that sage advice and white hair you gotta be at least sixty."  
"Sixty?" he sounded about as outraged as was possible.  
"Fifty-five, if I'm being generous."  
"Just go annoy your parents before I make you do push-ups or something."  
"I'm not allowed, I'm on medical leave."  
"If you think that'll stop me you've got another thing coming."  
I let out a little laugh, my shoulders relaxing a little. I took a deep drink from my cup and gave him a small smile. "Thanks, sensei."  
"No problem kiddo," he hummed, lifting up his book again. "Now get out of here before I physically kick you out."  
"I'm going, I'm going."  
I stood up, sending Sango a wave on my way out.  
"Kid?"  
I turned around to look at him.  
With a hint of mischief in his eyes he simply said, "Twenty six."  
"Guess you're not as much of an old fuck as I thought you were," I called over my shoulder, barely catching him shaking his head at me in my peripheral on my way out.  
.-.-.  
I got home a little later, having roamed around the village and gotten my books from Naruto's apartment on the way home. Opening the door I was greeted by silence, though I could already feel mama and papa's signatures sitting at the kitchen table, as they usually were. I walked into the kitchen with baited breath, offering them what I hoped was a smile. They looked to each other, sharing a few looks, before looking back to me.  
Dropping my books down on the couch in the living room I pulled out the third chair at the table and sat down, folding my hands together. "I'm sorry I just ran out like that."  
"We're not mad, sweet heart," mama said, covering my hands with one of hers. "You just worried us, running out like that without a word."  
"I know."  
They shared another look before papa asked, "How much did you hear?"  
I ran them through what part of the conversation I'd been witness to. I didn't look up the entire time, not ready to see their expressions. They absorbed what I said slowly, and an eternity seemed to go by before either of them spoke up.  
"It's not that we don't trust you, or that we aren't proud of you," mama said. "You just… try and see where we're coming from here."  
"Two civilians who got more than they bargained for?"  
"Kasumi," papa warned, not having to say anything else.  
"Well then tell me? Where are you coming from?" I cried, pulling my hands away from her and gripping the edges of the table. "Because I know where I'm coming from! How would you feel if you were me, if you overheard your parents talking about how they wish you'd given up even though they'd encouraged you to do the exact opposite thing for the entirety of your life."  
Tears were prickling at the edges of my eyes. It'd been a long few weeks and I was finding myself wanting nothing more than to just have a bit of true, undisturbed peace for a bit.  
"Baby - "  
"I know that you didn't mean to hurt my feelings, and you didn't mean for them to affect me the way that they have, but… they did, mama."  
I felt fingers underneath my chin. Mama looked me in the eye, an ocean of emotions dancing across her features. "No matter what happens, I will support you. You are my daughter. Nothing will change that. You're right, I didn't mean to hurt you with what I said. I know now, that I did, and I'm sorry that I did," she said, the sincerity of her words breaking my heart. "And it's the fact that you are my daughter that I worry, and that I want you to live what I know is a safe and stable life. Some part of my heart will always want you to abandon this life, take over the restaurant, and live the rest of your days in safety. I know you won't, and I've accepted that you won't. At the end of the day, I love you, no matter what you do, no matter how I feel about it, I love you, and that's all that matters."  
"I love you too, mama," I said, my voice shaking. God, I had been an absolute mess the past few days.  
She moved out of her chair and around to mine, dropping on her knees to give me a hug. "Never forget that baby."  
"I won't."  
I spent the rest of the night in the kitchen, telling mama and papa every detail of what happened on the mission. I realized, now, that they deserved to know. Even the things I didn't want them to know, I said anyways.  
The danger wasn't going to get better from here. It would only get worse and at least this way, they not only heard and saw about the bad, but they got to hear about all the good. They got to hear about how Kakashi-sensei would lay down his life for us, how Naruto would do anything to protect me and the rest of the team, and how even Sasuke cared enough to take the blow for one of us at the end of the day. They heard about how I broke my ankle, but they also heard about how I fought through it, and how in the end, we came out on the top of that fight. They heard about how even when I got my ankle healed, I was able to learn from it, and got essentially a private lesson on medical ninjutsu out of it.  
They got the good, and the bad, and at the end of the night, they trusted me more for it.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN  
.-.-.  
"Order up Kasumi!"  
I tossed the cloth I was using to wipe up the table over my shoulder and spun around, breezing over to the pick-up window. It was the middle of the lunch rush and even on a Tuesday, the restaurant was as busy as ever, with almost all of our tables full. They hadn't really needed my help, even with how busy they were, but I was still stuck not being allowed to train yet and so there really wasn't anything else for me to do.  
"What table?" I asked, grabbing the plate.  
"Four," Takeo said.  
"Thanks!"  
I weaved my way through the tables, holding the plate up above my head and the rest of the chaos. I waved to people as I went, checking up on a couple of the other tables before heading over into the corner where table four was situated.  
"Here you go - oh, Sakura," I said, blinking at the young girl in surprise. "Hey, how are you doing?"  
The girl looked up at me, equally surprised. "Kasumi! I haven't seen you since graduation."  
I paused for a moment. "One second, here I'll set this down and be right back."  
"Okay."  
Truth be told, I had no idea what was going on in her life. She should have been in my position, where I was right now, but of course she wasn't, and that left me with a burning curiosity. "Mama, I'm going to talk to one of my friends, can you take me off the floor?"  
"Sure baby," mama replied with a smile. "Just tell me if you want to come back on afterwards, okay?"  
"'Course."  
Things were better between all of us. After telling them everything that happened, things had settled down, and I found myself feeling better about all of it. Mama and papa felt bad about how it all went down, vehemently apologizing and assuring me the past few days. It still hurt a little bit, knowing that maybe they weren't as sold on the idea of me being a shinobi - especially mama - hitting an insecurity I never really put much thought to; I wanted to take what Kakashi-sensei said about not resting my confidence on the shoulders of others to heart, though, and I was going to work my way towards that.  
I flew back through the tables and plopped myself down opposite of Sakura, taking in the wide spread of books across the surface of it. They were all medical ninjutsu books.  
"Medical books," I murmured. "Are you going to be a medic-nin?"  
She nodded, acting in a manner much more shy than I ever remembered her to be. I knew that she was a bit more withdrawn when Ino wasn't around to help her come out of her shell, I just hadn't realized she was this quiet. "We failed our Jonin-sensei's test," she muttered.  
I winced. "I'm sorry."  
"It's alright," she said, but I could tell from her voice it most certainly wasn't alright. She was bitter over it, as anybody would be.  
Guilt clouded in my chest. I was the reason she wasn't going to work in the field. She still had the chance to be an incredible medic-nin, I knew that, it just didn't feel too good being the thing to get in the way of somebody else's dream, even indirectly. "What happened?"  
"We just had to get one hit in," she said with a bit of a scowl. "We had to work as a team, fight him and get one single hit in on him."  
That was a bit of a harsh test, realistically. Even one hit was asking a lot out of a rag-tag group of genins up against a seasoned jonin.  
"That's shitty," I said.  
She gave a nod. "We didn't even get close. None of us could agree and we just ended up fighting each other. He said that if we did that out on the field, we'd all be dead," she said. "But he pulled me aside afterwards and said that he thought my chakra control was good and that I should try and be a medic-nin."  
"Has it at least been going well?"  
She shrugged. "Yeah, I mean, it's not bad," she said. "It's a lot of work."  
"You're smart though," I said. "I'm sure you'll be great!"  
"Thanks," she said and smiled, her mood seeming to be at least a little bit brighter.  
"I should probably get back to work. If you need any help, I don't mind," I said. "I'm no expert or anything but I've got a little bit of experience and I can try to give you some pointers."  
I gave her a little wave and hopped back on my feet, rushing back up to the order window and jumping back into work mode.  
.-.-.  
I got to the training grounds early the next day, ready to get back to work after having so much time off of training. I'd fished out my weights and filled them up a little, just enough to try and get used to having them on again but no so much that they would cause much strain on my muscles. Unsurprisingly, I was the first one there.  
Kakashi-sensei had us at one of the lots that were tucked a bit further away from the village, not typically a good sign. This was definitely going to be an interesting session. Since I'd gotten there early I started to stretch out and practice some of my taijutsu stances, shaking off a bit of the rust. It felt good to be back in motion like this; I'd cheated a little and done small bits of exercises over the course of the two weeks, but I could never do much. A little chakra practice here, a short jog there, whatever I could squeeze in without having somebody on my case. Regardless, I hadn't gotten to do enough to really scratch the itch in my muscles - asking a shinobi not to train is like asking a bird not to fly.  
I was happy with how easily I could still flow through most of it. I only paused when I felt a rather familiar chakra signature prickling on the edge of my senses. Off to my left, perched on a fence on the on the far side of the training grounds was a familiar head of raven hair, watching me in what I could only assume was boredom.  
"What are you doing?" I called.  
"Nothing."  
"Really? 'Cause that looks a whole lot like you being a weirdo."  
He hopped off the fence and meandered his way over, his hands in his pockets and his gait carrying its usual arrogance. "That sounds a whole lot like you being a bitch."  
I snorted. "Good to know you haven't become any less of an asshole over the last two weeks," I said. "Did you see Naruto on your way here?"  
"Please, like the dobe would actually get here on time."  
"Shut up Sasuke, he's normally at least close."  
"Whatever."  
"Whatever," I muttered in a mocking tone, fishing through my stuff for a watch. "He has five more minutes before he counts as being late."  
"He'll be here in ten," Sasuke said, leaning back against the tree with his arms crossed behind his head.  
"He'll be here on time."  
"Want a bet?"  
"What the fuck can you bet me that I'd even want?" I muttered aloud. An impish grin suddenly spread across my cheeks. "How about, if I win, you have to take Sakura out on a date."  
"No."  
"Nu-uh, the bet was your idea you aren't allowed to just back out like that!"  
"I can do whatever I want."  
"Oh come on!"  
"I said no."  
"Baby."  
"Shut up," he said. "You're annoying."  
I sighed, moving away from him and going back to my stances. "Not my fault you're too much of a wimp to take her out on a date."  
The pure annoyance radiating off him, despite his calm tone, put a grin on my face. It would never not be satisfying to tick off the little Uchiha. Just as I guessed, five minutes later Naruto sprinted into the training grounds, huffing and puffing. His track-suit was still splattered with paint from his last prank and his hair looked like it probably hadn't really gotten a good brush in at least a day.  
"Whew," he said. "Just in time!"  
"Didn't I tell you to wash that thing?" I asked, walking over to him and poking at his clothes. "There's still paint all over it!"  
"I tried, it just wouldn't come out!" he whined.  
I sighed. "Come back with me, I'll see if mama can get it out."  
"Thanks Kasu, you're the best!"  
"I know I am," I said.  
The rest of the time before Kakashi-sensei got here was uneventful. I kept running through my stances, Naruto fell asleep, and Sasuke just stared at me grumpily, having narrowly dodged a bullet with his bet. If he hadn't said no he'd be out there making Sakura's day for her.  
Kakashi-sensei strolled in, took one look at Naruto, and smirked. "I'm assuming you're the one that wrote 'this belongs to a grumpy fuck' on Takeda Sarushi's home?"  
I let out a massive, ugly laugh, holding out my hand to Naruto in a high-five, which he gave me with a snicker of his own. Takeda Sarushi was the resident cranky old man cliche of Konoha. Rude, crude, lewd, and bitter were the best four words to describe that old dirt bag. I can't even count the amount of times he's yelled at me for talking in any tone above a whisper when I walked past his house. I knew Naruto had defaced something yesterday, I just never got the chance to ask what.  
Kakashi-sensei shook his head a little. "If I were you, I'd make sure that you don't let him see you with all that paint on your clothes. He's after your head and even in his old age that man has a good swing."  
After all these months, Kakashi-sensei has learnt that the only person who can really get Naruto to care about being in trouble is Iruka-sensei, and he's pretty much stopped even bothering getting after him for all his stupid and hilarious antics. Though I think part of it is also some amount of appreciation for the genuine skill Naruto displays in his ability to pull off pranks; nothing brings out his inner shinobi more than being chased by a severely pissed off jonin.  
He looked between the three of us. "You're already warmed up," he said, pointing at me. His finger moved to the other two. "You both haven't moved yet."  
"I ran here!" Naruto said indignantly.  
"Go, warm up. When you're done you two are going to spar for a bit while I work with Kasumi, then you'll both have a chance to spar with her. And no chakra, I want taijutsu only spars."  
The other two set off and I plopped down, sitting cross-legged in front of him. "What are we working on?"  
"I want to see if we can figure out some handsigns for you to use with your technique."  
I had expected it to be something to do with my bloodlimit, just not that.  
"Are you serious?"  
"Very," he said, sitting on front of me with considerably more grace.  
"Is that even possible? It could be nearly anything. Like, the Yamanaka and Akimichi both have entirely unique hand seals for their techniques."  
"Maybe, maybe not. I've never had to work backwards like this before," he replied. "We're going to at least try, though. The medic-nin seemed to be fairly worried about the state of your coils, and I don't disagree with her. She said that they're some of the most delicate she's ever seen, and using a technique like yours can do a serious number on them."  
It was true. As much as I hated to admit it I had to be careful, especially considering how hard I had been pushing in hopes of increasing my reserves. Coils could heal over time, if left alone enough, but they'd never be able to fully heal themselves to the way they were before the damage was done, especially if it was severe. I rubbed a hand over my face.  
"Alright, where do we start?"  
"That's a good question," he said. "Given the fact that you've mastered it without any hand signs at all, even just one of them could be enough to alleviate the amount of chakra needed to perform the jutsu. Hell, you may only even need one hand."  
"So it's just going to be trial and error?"  
"Basically. If it even uses an already-established hand seal," he said. "It could also be like you said, an entirely unique seal. That being said, we don't need a perfect match, just something that is functional."  
"Wait, what?"  
In the show, the science behind hand signs is never actually delved into. All that's ever known is that they serve as a way to help channel chakra. I've tried to find books that talk about it but the information is scarce to none.  
"I guess they never teach you this kind of stuff, huh?" he said, mostly to himself, and scratched his head. "It's kind of like… a shoe. Just because the shoe isn't a perfect fit, doesn't mean it won't go on your foot, right? When it is the right size, it's more comfortable. When it's the wrong size it still functions as a shoe but it just doesn't do the job as well. A hand seal works kind of like that. Given the twelve we know of, it's not a matter which one will channel the chakra, because realistically they all will. It's which one will channel your chakra the best."  
"Huh."  
"Got it?"  
"I think so, yeah."  
We ran through all of the seals. Mostly, they didn't make a noticeable difference in how much chakra it took to maintain the technique. Out of all of them, the only seals that actually helped at all were the Rat, Dragon, and Hare seals - even then, the Rat seal had the best show out of all of them. It got me thinking about what Shika had suggested not too long ago, the idea of my bloodlimit being some kind of genjutsu. The Rat seal was most often associated with the Nara techniques. While I didn't think it was a shadow technique, something interesting to note is that the Nara techniques were a type of Yin-Release. That information didn't help much in terms of getting us anywhere with pinning down the true hand seal, but it made sense to me that my bloodlimit could be a Yin-Release, and it was just nice to have some kind of information about my technique that finally made sense to me.  
After narrowing it down to those three seals, we tried a few variations of them, though it was hard to discern which, if any, was the best option. It'd need more time and practice in actual combat before we could start coming out with a definitive winner.  
"Alright, that's enough for today," Kakashi-sensei said. He glanced over at the two boys who had now devolved from sparring to simply bickering with each other. "They lasted longer than I thought they would."  
"They made it a whole hour without killing each other," I said. "I'm impressed."  
"Okay cut it out you two!" he called as he stood up. "Time for you to take turns sparring with Kasumi."  
Grumbling, the two boys separated, sending glares at each other surreptitiously.  
I stood up and stretched out my arms.  
"Naruto, you and Kasumi are going to spar first. No chakra."  
"That's not fair," he shouted. "She's going to win."  
I smirked. "I think that's the idea."  
Kakashi-sensei gave me a look. "Take it as a chance to improve. Watch what she does, take note of how she bests you, and then don't repeat your mistakes."  
We both moved further out and stood across from each other. Normally when we sparred in training, Naruto and I didn't fight each other. When chakra wasn't allowed, I always won. When chakra was allowed, he always won. It was a bit of a useless experience because it never ended any differently.  
"Alright, begin."  
I stood, in a relaxed defensive position, waiting for him to come at me. As per typical Naruto he charged at me full force. I slipped away from his blow that was aimed directly at my head, ducking away when he turned on me and repeated the action. Taking advantage of my position I swept my legs across his, knocking his feet out from under him and putting him on his ass.  
He recovered quickly, jumping up and coming at me without missing a beat. I continued to dance around his blows. To his credit, with the speed that he was able to dish out his hits I had almost no time to actually get in any of my own. I was stuck dodging and waiting until he gave me a clear opening to go in for a strike. Though, this also happened to play into one of Naruto's weaknesses - he was impatient as hell.  
After a good couple of minutes of not being able to even touch me he let out a cry of frustration, throwing a reckless blow towards my mid-section. This was the opening I knew would come. Just before he hit me I grabbed his wrist, flowing with the blow and using his momentum against him to twist him off balance. I shoved him onto the ground and he landed flat on his back. I went down with him, landing with my knee on his chest and holding his wrist above his head. Before he had a chance to react I grabbed his other wrist and held it firmly above his head as well, leaving him in an entirely vulnerable position.  
"Kasumi wins."  
He grunted. "See, I said she'd win."  
I got off of him and held out a hand, helping him up from the ground. "You left yourself open for me."  
"Yeah, yeah."  
"What she said is right," Kakashi-sensei said. "You played directly into her strengths. Where did you go wrong?"  
"I was too aggressive and got reckless," he muttered.  
"The aggressive is good actually," I intervened. "You barely gave me a chance to get any of my own hits in."  
"I wouldn't say the aggressive is good," Kakashi-sensei countered. "It just happens to be effective against you. Aggressive isn't going to be the right reaction in every situation."  
"I got it," Naruto said, frowning. He wasn't always a good loser.  
"Cheer up," I said and clapped him on the back. "If you could use your ninjutsu you woulda kicked my ass."  
He grinned. "That's true."  
"Okay, Sasuke and Kasumi, off you two go."  
This would be a little more interesting. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke actually made use of more than just his fists in combat. Even without his ninjutsu he still was good competition for me, though like with Naruto, when chakra wasn't allowed, I normally won.  
The two of us squared off. Sasuke stood across from me, eyeing me up. This time, though, I took a slightly different stance. To most it looked just like a less relaxed version of my defensive stance. Sasuke had just watched me fight Naruto and was going to expect the same kind of style out of me - I wasn't going to give him that. He had more patience than Naruto and the odds of him messing up and giving me an opening weren't anywhere near as high. Instead, I took an offensive stance. I set my left hand up, slightly outstretched, ready to strike not block; my left foot was slightly in front; I tipped my shoulders forward just a tad instead of holding them back.  
From Sasuke's expression he hadn't noticed the minute changes, but Kakashi-sensei seemed to have picked up on them, a small amount of amusement in his voice when he called out, "Begin."  
I didn't give him a chance to strike first. I darted forward, sneaking under his guard and landing a solid blow on his jaw. He reeled back in surprise and I hopped back away from him before he had a chance to even react. Having my weights back on didn't change the fact that I was considerably faster than either of them.  
"I wasn't ready," he grumbled.  
"Whatever you say," I snickered.  
He scowled at me and pounced. I ducked away from his blow, flipping back on my hands to avoid his next hit before he even had a chance to throw it. He came back at me and I slid to the right of the hit, the force of his fist sending a small breeze across where it would have landed. I launched myself upwards, sending a wave of senbon coated in a neurotoxin at him. It was nothing lethal, just enough to mess with his balance a bit. He jumped out of the way of them and landed in a tree across from me, studying me. He moved back into the tree so that I couldn't see what he was doing. I held one of my kunai in my hand, having a hunch of what he was about to do. As I guessed, he sent a wave of shuriken my way which I easily deflected with the small blade in my hand.  
I pulled another kunai from my leg and launched them both at where I knew he was. Given the fact that I only heard one thunk against a tree branch, there was a good chance the other had hit the mark. Too bad for him, I also made sure to keep all my kunai coated with the same neurotoxin that I put on my senbon. Sasuke jumped out from the tree, bloody kunai in hand. Much to my surprise he actually flung it back at me. I swiveled out of the way and he took the advantage to fly at me, fist at the ready. I launched myself up again, arcing through the air. He threw one of his own kunai at me and I curled myself in a ball, speeding up my descent to avoid the blade.  
Sasuke was on me as soon as I hit the ground.  
He aimed a kick at me but I could see it in his actions that the toxin was starting to take effect. Rather than avoid the hit I absorbed his kick with the hard part of my forearm. This caught him off guard and I took the chance to dart in, hitting him with a couple of sharp jabs in the ribs. He let out a growl and came at me. I avoided the first two before taking the third. This time, though, he was ready, and before I could actually get any hits in he jumped away from me.  
He was huffing. Finally, he seemed to realize what happened. "You poisoned me?"  
I grinned shamelessly. "I don't know, did I?"  
He looked over at Kakashi-sensei. "That's cheating."  
Kakashi-sensei only shrugged. "It's not chakra."  
Not satisfied, Sasuke only glared at me for a second before practically throwing himself at me. I didn't bother trying to block the hit. I moved around it, taking my time to just avoid his hits again - I could dodge him all day without leaving my guard open. That was what my taijutsu style excelled at. I waited for the right opening and, like with Naruto, used his own force against him.  
He made his mistake with another wild kick. Before he could blink I actually grabbed his ankle and hooked my leg around his. In one fluid movement I pulled his ankle forward while also sweeping his other foot out from under him. I let him fall and before he could get up poised myself on top of him, kunai aimed at his throat.  
"Kasumi wins."  
I got off of him and offered him a hand up. Surprisingly, he actually took it, though not without throwing another heated glare at me. He was an even worse loser than Naruto.  
Kakashi-sensei smirked at him when we approached. "You should know better than to use foliage against somebody who can sense chakra."  
"If she hadn't poisoned me she would have lost."  
I scoffed. "Unlikely. It's a minor neurotoxin, and there's barely enough of a dose on my kunai to get into your muscles."  
"It's still cheating."  
"Whatever, asshole. If that's what lets you sleep at night keep believing it."  
"What other mistakes did you make?" Kakashi-sensei asked Sasuke.  
"I kept being aggressive after I knew she poisoned me," he grumbled. "Gave her openings."  
"Good," Kakashi-sensei said. "I think that's enough for today. Be back here tomorrow morning, bright and early."  
The two boys went off, grumbling, to grab their stuff.  
Kakashi-sensei shoved his hands in his pockets and moved to leave the training grounds. I followed him a little ways.  
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei."  
"What's up, kid?"  
"I was thinking that I wanted to start getting some training in with weaponry."  
He scratched his head. "I can't help you out much there."  
"Do you know somebody who can?"  
I could practically see the internal war that was waging in his mind.  
"I do… but I'll have to call in a favor, and you are so going to owe me one, kid."  
"Fine."  
He sighed, clearly dreading what he was going to have to do. "Are you sure you're going to be committed to this kid? I'd rather not go and call in this favor unless you know for sure that you're going to stick with this."  
"I need more than just my taijutsu. I can't really use any ninjutsu other than my technique, and I need something to turn the tide of a fight in my favor. The second chakra is allowed Naruto and Sasuke have me beat."  
"Alright. I'll see what I can do, kid."  
I jumped forward and gave him a hug. "Thanks!"  
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Yeah, whatever kid." He let go and walked away, sending me a wave behind his back.  
I walked back over and grabbed my stuff, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Sasuke was already gone, having hopped the fence rather than just take the main path out. Naruto was still there waiting for me though. Oh, yeah, I had told him that I'd see if mama would wash his clothes.  
"Let's get going, I didn't have breakfast before I left, so I'm starving," I said.  
.-.-.  
"Mama, papa, I'm home!" I called, shuffling in the door and slipping off my shoes. "Naruto's here too!"  
Papa was doing dishes while mama was in the living room, reading a book. She looked up and smiled at Naruto only to take in his paint-splattered outfit.  
"Oh my what - were you the one that defaced Mr. Sarushi's home?"  
Somehow, I wasn't surprised that she'd managed to figure that one out almost instantly.  
The look of horror and fear on Naruto's face had me hiding snickers from mama.  
"Yes, Mrs. Himura," he said, looking at his feet shamefully.  
"Why would you do that?"  
"He was being mean to me," Naruto murmured.  
"Would you like it if people painted your apartment every time you did something that they didn't like?"  
"No Mrs. Himura."  
"I'm assuming that you're here because you couldn't get the paint out yourself?"  
"Yes Mrs. Himura."  
"I'll wash it out, but only if you swear to me that you'll apologize to Mr. Sarushi. And I mean a real apology."  
"I promise, Mrs. Himura."  
"Good," she said. She stood up and marched off, coming back with some clothes in her hand. "I'm not sure which boy these belong to. Go change into them, I'll take your clothes and clean them."  
"Thank you Mrs. Himura."  
"You're welcome, Naruto," she said and smiled at him, giving him a pat on the head.  
I take back what I said about Iruka-sensei being the only one who can scold Naruto successfully - mama seemed to have that one down pat.  
Naruto went and changed, handing her his own tarnished clothes.  
"There's leftovers from dinner last night if you kids are hungry," she called.  
When he was sure mama was gone papa reached out and extended his hand to Naruto in a high-five. Naruto grinned and clapped his hand against papa's.  
"Don't tell her, but I hate that old fart too," papa said.  
"What was that?" mama practically screamed from the laundry room.  
"Nothing dear!"  
I snorted, opening the fridge and pulling out the leftovers. "Want some?"  
"Yes please."  
I grabbed two plates and served myself, letting Naruto take whatever he wanted. He filled up his plate and we both sat down at the table and munched away.  
"Shikamaru called half an hour ago," papa said. "He wanted you to come over after you got home from training."  
I looked at Naruto. "Wanna go?"  
"I don't have any pranks that I want to pull or anything, so sure!"  
"We'll probably be heading there after we finish eating then."  
"Just make sure your mother is okay with it," papa said.  
By the time I finished eating mama was back in the living room, reading her book again.  
"Mama, can I go to Shikamaru's?"  
"Sure sweetheart. Are you going to be home for dinner?"  
"I'm not sure yet."  
"As long as you call before dinner so that I know how much to make I don't mind."  
"Thanks mama!" I looked back to Naruto who was just finishing. "I'm going to go change then we'll go."  
He said something around a full mouth. Mama gave him a sharp look from her spot on the couch and he hurriedly swallowed, blushing. "Okay."  
Mama smiled to herself, looking back down at her book. It was kind of hilarious just how scared that poor little boy was of her.  
By the time I was dressed and ready to go Naruto was done eating. I washed off our dishes in the sink and slipped on some shoes, waving goodbye to mama and papa on the way out.  
.-.-.  
It was roughly a twenty minute walk to the Nara compound from my house. As we approached the gates the guards were already opening them.  
"Hey, kids," one of them said, smiling at us.  
"Hi," Naruto and I both chorused at the same time.  
We walked through the gate and I split away from Naruto. "You go ahead, I need to run back to the hut and see if I left some books here. Just tell Shika I'll be there in a few minute," I said.  
"'Kay," he said.  
I jogged out through the forest and to the little hut, shuffling through my stuff. My compiled list of poisons their antidotes was currently MIA. I was trying not to get too worked up, but I hadn't been able to find it anywhere at the house, and I was hoping that I'd just left it here last time I was working at the shack. Not only was it written in English, but I also had a seal on it that prevented anybody else opening it up - I had no worries that somebody would be able to have that information, I just didn't want the hundreds of hours I'd put into that book down the drain. Sure, I could remember all of it, but it was easier to have a written copy just in case. Even with my memory I still had my moments if I was tired enough.  
I spent a good fifteen minutes hunting for it before I accepted that it wasn't there.  
The trudge back to Shika's house was a long one. I walked through the back door and slipped off my shoes, grumbling to myself. Shikaku was sitting at the table, stroking his goatee, eyes set on the shogi board as usual.  
"Hi Mr. Nara," I said.  
"Hello Kasumi," he said. "The boys are in the TV room."  
"Thanks."  
On my way past, he extended his arm, holding out my book to me.  
I actually gasped. I couldn't even begin to express the amount of relief I felt at seeing it held in his grip. "Oh thank Kami. Where was it?"  
"You left it in the main room," he said. He looked up at me, eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Shikamaru told me that you'd made up your own language, but I hadn't believed him until I actually saw it in this book."  
I blinked at him. Oh… I suppose I must have left it open. "Yeah," I said and gave a small laugh.  
"Is it a full language?"  
"Uh huh. It's considerably more basic than Japanese though," I said. "Twenty-six letter alphabet, each word is just a combination of those letters."  
"Interesting," he said, deep in thought. "And you came up with this instead of studying during the Academy?"  
I blushed a little. "Yeah."  
He laughed. "Ah, don't worry. I know what it's like being bored for that much time." He looked back to the shogi board. "I'll let you go now, I think the boys might have started the movie without you."  
"Thanks again Mr. Nara!"  
I hurried into the TV room, book clutched to my chest.  
"Took you long enough!" Naruto shouted.  
"It only took me like fifteen minutes," I said. "That's not too bad."  
Shika was laying on the couch, entirely covered by a blanket, while Cho was curled up next to Naruto on the other couch.  
"Dad got you the book?" Shika asked.  
"Yeah."  
"He wanted going to ask you to teach him your language but mom said that he shouldn't bother you."  
"I don't think I could teach it to anybody if I wanted to," I admitted. Naruto, in his infinite patience, had started the movie, completely ignoring our conversation. I moved over to the couch Shika was lounging on. "Shove up."  
He only groaned at me. I smacked his legs with my book and he yelped. "Kami, woman!"  
"Shove up."  
Grumbling, he curled his legs up and I settled down, stealing part of the blanket. The spot where his legs had been was still nice and warm.  
The movie they put on was some kind of stupid comedy that had Naruto and Cho in tears. I got bored halfway through and cracked open my book, still pondering over that stupid antidote I had yet to figure out. By this point, it was more a matter of principle than anything else. I refused to let some stupid combination of ingredients beat me. The poison I had made was way too powerful for me to stop using, but I couldn't run around with it on my belt and not have the fix for it just in case. It was positively infuriating.  
Shika must have gotten bored of the movie too because he was staring up at me from under the blanket, watching me chew my lip and stare down at the page.  
"Still stuck on that thing?"  
"Yeah," I said. "I tried what your dad suggested, and while they didn't blow up on me, Toshiko and Keiko both said that none of them would be potent enough to save somebody from a lethal dosage."  
"I don't get why you don't just give it up," he said. "You'll have other poisons."  
"There's not a chance in hell I'm giving up my first poison that I designed entirely on my own."  
"That's so troublesome," he said.  
I rolled my eyes. "Everything that doesn't involve sleeping or cloud watching is troublesome to you."  
"Those are both viable pass times."  
"Whatever, Shika."  
When the movie ended, the boys popped in another one that I also zoned out for. Eventually, Naruto and Cho both left to go home. I called mama and papa to say I wasn't going to be home for dinner and settled down in my little poison hut. I was determined to get this stupid antidote settled and done. I'd spent the last week and a half worrying over it - I couldn't start any new projects before finishing the one I was already working on.  
I moved stuff off of my main desk and bit the edge of my thumb, slamming my hands down to summon Keiko.  
"Mistress, how are you?" she chirped in her usual cheery tone.  
"I'm not bad, Keiko."  
"I suppose you need more antidote ingredients?"  
"You know me too well."  
"I'll see what I can get for you!" she said and disappeared in a little poof.  
I pulled out all of my usual supplies. I'd gone out and stocked up on a few more pieces of extra equipment given my recent track record. The new pots were a bit more heavy duty, too, so that hopefully if I did have a bad batch it wouldn't just melt through the pot. I'd had to make some repairs to the desk and decided that until I had this figured out, I was going to be heating everything outside of the shack on a small patch of dirt a few metres away. This way if it went bad, I wasn't going to have to just replace my desk entirely.  
Keiko returned quickly with a little basket full of goodies. "Here you are mistress!"  
I grinned. "Thank you so much Keiko, this has everything I've been asking for recently?"  
"Yep!"  
"Awesome."  
"If you need anything else, just summon me back!"  
I got straight to preparing the herbs. I slipped on my gloves and started cutting them up into small bits and picking off what I needed of the plants. I sung to myself quietly, the words of the old lullaby that I could never get out of my head easily slipping out of my mouth. Considering how painful the next couple of hours were likely to be, I wanted to get as much contentment and joy out of the preparation process that I could. I already had some combinations that I'd planned out during the movies that I wanted to try before coming up with anything new. Really, the only upside I could find was that if I fucked it up enough, eventually I'd get a winner by process of elimination.  
After everything was ready I gathered it up in the basket, grabbing a pot with all my other supplies inside and the heater on my way to the little dirt patch. Honestly, I was kind of happy to be outside. It was the middle of September and I had to admit, fall in the Land of Fire was gorgeous. The leaves were falling off the trees and littered the ground, but it was still warm enough outside that I could sit comfortably in a short sleeve shirt and jeans. There was no snow and I doubted we would get any for another couple of months. I didn't mind too much - something about dying in the snow seemed to have turned me off of it in general.  
I lit the burner and placed the pot atop it, giving it some time to come to heat. I moved over to the small creek nearby and filled up another pot with enough water for a few attempts before settling down for the next couple of hours. Yoshino said that if I wanted I could just eat dinner later and stay for the night, an offer that I'd probably take her up on. I had no idea how long I was going to be out here for.  
After a couple of minutes I poured some of the water into my pot, satisfied with the sizzling sounds and steam that curled from inside it. I used my pestle out there to grind as I went, hoping that if I ground the ingredients right before I put them in it might help. I was ready to try almost anything at this point.  
My first attempt failed about halfway through as I was stirring. I mean, I hadn't realized that it was a botched attempt until I lifted the ladle and noticed the entire bottom half of it had melted away due to being too acidic. I rolled my eyes and dumped out the contents of the pot, grateful I had spent a little extra and gotten one that wouldn't burn through. I rinsed it out before setting it back on the heater and grabbing a new ladle.  
The second try went better. I actually managed to get a finished product. With high hopes I summoned Keiko only to have her tell me that it wasn't strong enough. Just to be sure, I also summoned Toshiko and had her check as well. She agreed that it was too weak, putting me back to square one.  
The third try was a complete and utter disaster. Whoever came up with the saying 'third time's the charm' was fucking wrong. I had barely even started working on it when the pot exploded. I don't just mean there was a bit of a poof of smoke and some spillage. When I added in one of the ingredients and went to stir it, the contents of the pot seemed to combine and with one massive boom the entire thing blew up in front of me. I managed to duck away from the chunk of pot that flew towards my head. The contents of it fell onto the burner and a horrifying plume of flames was left in its place. The whole thing left me incredibly glad I had chosen to work out here, because if I was still in the hut there was a pretty legitimate chance it'd be an inferno right now.  
Shika and Shikaku were outside pretty quickly. If they hadn't heard the explosion then they definitely saw the cloud of black smoke seeping through the treetops. When they got there, I had just given up and lay on my back, staring up at the sky. I raised up one of my arms. "I'm not dead."  
"But it looks like your pot is," Shika said, picking up a piece and admiring it. "You really did a number on it.  
"Shut up," I groaned.  
"I thought we were going to be walking out to a burnt down hut," Shikaku admitted.  
"I was worried something like this might happen so I did all my work out here," I said.  
"Good thing," Shikaku said.  
"This sucks."  
"I told you that you should have just given up," Shika said.  
"How can I give up now? Three pots have lost their lives over this - I can't let them have died in vain."  
Shika snorted.  
"You can keep trying tomorrow," Shikaku said. "Why don't you come in and have dinner before it gets too cold."  
"Yeah," I muttered. I hauled myself off the ground and meandered behind them, wondering if I was ever going to get this out of the way.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN  
.-.-.  
Shika and I both left the house at the same time the next morning to head to training. The training grounds we'd be working on were right next to each other, so there wasn't much point in going separately. I was planning on going back with him afterwards, too, since mama and papa weren't going to be home anyways and I wanted to finally get that antidote figured out.  
I had to drop by my house on the way to the training grounds so I could change into something that was actually fit to fight in and grab the equipment I needed.  
"You're so slow," Shika said around a yawn, barely awake still. "You take almost as long as Ino to get ready."  
I rolled my eyes. "That's a crock of shit."  
"Close enough."  
"I took like… what… five minutes to get changed?"  
"That was definitely longer than five minutes."  
I tapped my knuckles against the side of his head. "Are you sure you're awake?"  
If I wasn't a morning person, Shika was most definitely not one either.  
"No."  
"I thought you guys didn't normally start training until like… noon."  
"At the earliest," Shika said, another yawn escaping his lips. "But Asuma said he wanted us there early today."  
"Are you guys going on a mission or something?"  
"No," he said. "Not unless he told us we were and I was just asleep when he did."  
I shook my head. "Why would you be sleeping instead of training?"  
"Sleeping is a form of training too."  
"How?"  
"It's recovery."  
"Kami you're hopeless."  
"That's rude," he said but there was a smirk on his face.  
"I am rude."  
"You really are."  
"Thanks."  
"That's not a compliment."  
"Tough shit, I take it as one."  
"Whatever Kas."  
When we got to the training grounds Asuma, Ino, and Cho were already there. Asuma was sitting against a tree smoking while Ino and Cho both looked like they were asleep on the grass beside him, Ino using Asuma's lap as a pillow. The morning air had a bit of a bite to it, making me wish I'd brought a coat for while I was waiting to start training myself.  
Asuma looked over at us when we walked in, sighing a little to himself and getting up, unceremoniously dumping Ino off his lap. She cried out indignantly, rubbing her head where it had smacked against the ground.  
"Asuma-sensei, what gives," she whined.  
"Time to start training."  
Cho blinked his eyes blearily, waving at us. "Kas what are you doing here?"  
"I'm training next to you guys and I was over at Shika's last night so I figured I might as well come with him and just be a bit early."  
Asuma nodded at me. "Hey kid, how ya doin'?"  
I scrunched my nose. "I'd be better if you'd put that thing out."  
"You got me last time, that's not happening this time."  
"You sure about that?"  
"You can be cocky all you want kid, you're not going to get me," he said with a smirk.  
The question was there of how badly did I need to keep that smell out of my nose? I mean, if I really wanted, I could just use my bloodlimit and take him by surprise. Even if he knew that I had my bloodlimit, it's not like he could stop me from grabbing it.  
Shika seemed to be watching the exchange with amusement, hands tucked in his pockets and his eyes moving between us.  
"Fuck off," I said and wandered over to a different tree, plopping myself down on the ground and curling my knees up against my chest.  
Asuma just barked a laugh and shook his head. "This'll be interesting."  
Team 10 all started to get warmed up, running some laps and stretching. Well, Cho and Ino did some stretching; Shika half-assed a couple of laps around the clearing before deciding that he had done enough and taking a nap. Asuma rolled his eyes but just left the idiot there and focused on the other two. I guess after all these months he must have been used to this by now.  
Since I had nothing better to do I crept forward, inching my way towards the young Nara boy. He was sleeping in the sun with his arms beneath his head and his legs splayed out in front of him - an easy target, really. I doubted this would spur him to get up and do his training but it'd at least grind on his nerves which was a close second regardless. I crawled towards him army-style, using my elbows to drag myself forward silently. Closer, closer, closer…  
"Hey whatcha doing?" I shouted, directly in his ear.  
He flailed, eyes flying open, taken entirely by surprise. I busted out laughing, rolling over the grass and holding my stomach. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. Once he realized what happened Shika heaved a deep sigh, mustering the closest thing he could to a glare and directing it at me.  
"Oh Kami, you made that way too easy."  
"I hate you."  
"You looked like you were going to shit yourself!"  
"People tend to do that when they're rudely awoken from naps."  
"Hey, you shouldn't be napping, you got training to do," I said.  
"We went over this," he said. "Sleeping is training."  
"No it's not."  
He made a sound of annoyance in the back of his throat. "Are you going to keep doing this until I get up?"  
"Oh you bet your sweet ass I will."  
"So troublesome," he muttered and stretched out like a cat.  
He stood up and went over to where Cho and Ino were, mirroring their movements as they went through one of the more basic stretching routines, not looking even remotely happy to be there. I moved over to where Asuma was, leaning against the fence with him.  
"I prefer a bit of a more subtle hand when it comes to motivating Shikamaru," he said. "But I'll admit your method is effective."  
"Years of practice," I said. "So what did they do to deserve an early training session?"  
"Nothing," he said, taking a drag from his cigarette and puffing it out away from me. "Kakashi and I just decided to arrange for a bit of a… collaboration training effort today."  
"Really?"  
He shrugged. "Sounds like both teams could use a bit of sparring diversity," he said. "Neither of the boys will spar with Ino. Shikamaru doesn't hit girls and Choji doesn't hit anybody."  
"Interesting," I said. "I mean we could use it. All of our spars end pretty much the same way no matter one."  
"I heard."  
I stretched out a little. "If you want, we can start now. I have nothing better to do."  
He turned his head to look at me, taking the cigarette out of his mouth. "You don't need to warm up?"  
"Nah."  
"If you want." He put his fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistle, getting the attention of the three genin. "Ino, you're gonna spar with Kasumi."  
"Why?" she asked.  
"Because I said so," he replied and I snorted.  
Ino gave me a bit of an appraising look. If the spars we had back at the Academy were any indication I had this in the bag. It had been months since the Academy, though, and while I knew how much I progressed since then, it was hard to gauge how far Ino had come. In the show the Land of Waves arc had taken place in June, five whole months ago. For some reason it took ages for our timeline to progress to that point. Really I had no idea where she had come in those five months.  
That being said, I was still pretty sure I had this one.  
I pushed myself off the fence. "Chakra or no chakra?"  
"Chakra," Asuma answered.  
I cracked my knuckles and smiled, forming my fingers into the Seal of Confrontation. Ino mirrored the seal, not looking too pleased to be fighting this early in the morning. I was indifferent considering this wasn't much earlier than what I was used to anyways.  
Knowing that my taijutsu was still going to be far superior to hers I slipped into a more offensive stance, gauging her reaction. Her eyes scanned over my feet and hands carefully. In response, she took a defensive stance, waiting for me to move. I grinned a little - maybe this wouldn't be as easy of a fight as I had thought it'd be.  
Using a little chakra in my legs I propelled myself forward. Ino got ready to block me but instead of striking at her from the front I skirted over at the last second, getting past her guard and delivering a solid blow to her side. She yelped in pain, jumping away from me and winding an arm across her side. Even without using chakra to power my punches I hit pretty hard due to the years of weight training I'd gone through to strengthen my muscles. Instead of following her retreat I launched myself up into the air, sending a barrage of senbon raining down on her. She jumped away from them but at the last second I flew through a set of hand seals and called out, "Wind Release: Wind Barrage!"  
The gust of wind sent the senbon careening towards her and before she could react at least four of them sunk into her skin. She scowled at me, yanking them out before my feet even hit the ground. This time, she moved into an offensive stance. I slipped into a defensive stance in response, firmly setting my feet apart from each other and raising my arms into a blocking position. I cocked my head to the side, vaguely curious of what she could do.  
She came at me with more force than I expected. I weaved my way around her attacks, making the smallest possible adjustments to get out of her way, twisting my body and using the fact that I was considerably shorter than her to my advantage. I was kind of impressed. I mean, she was still not as good as I was, definitely not as good as Sasuke, but her blows were well timed and she kept her guard mostly intact when dishing them out, a few of them even catching me a little off-guard. I could see the toxin beginning to work its way through her system, however, as her movements grew slower and sloppier as she went.  
Recognizing something was wrong she moved away from me, her eyes skirting from the senbon littering the ground back to me. The sun glinted off them in a way that was a bit of a dead giveaway if you knew what to look for. She frowned, shaking out her limbs a little.  
Not wanting to give her a chance to properly react I flew at her. In record time she forced her hands through a set of seals and called out, "Earth Release: Unbreakable Wall!"  
A wall of rock was erected in front of her, directly in my path. Rather than avoid it I dumped some chakra into my hand and punched straight right through it - nothing was unbreakable if you hit it hard enough. If I weren't in the middle of a fight the look of shock on Ino's face would have sent me into a laughing fit. Before she could put up her guard I slipped a kunai from my holster and held it to her neck, a considerable distance from the skin but enough to get the message across.  
Her gaze fluttered down, taking stock of both of our positions, then back up towards me. "I give," she said, her chest heaving.  
I put the kunai back and smiled a little, forming the Seal of Reconciliation. She did the same, though her hands were a bit shaky. I looked into her eyes and the shift in her pupils told me that she'd gotten a pretty decent dose of the neurotoxin. I fished through my belt for a second, spinning it around my waist, hunting for the little vial filled with green.  
"Wait a sec, lemme give you an antidote," I murmured when she started to walk back. "The sooner you get it the sooner you won't feel like somebody's spinning you around in circles."  
I found the little vial and gave her a once over, filling the cap two thirds of the way and handing it to her. She downed it and scrunched up her face. "That tastes disgusting."  
"Sorry," I said with a little laugh.  
She waved me off and we went back to where the boys were sitting.  
Asuma had a smirk on his face when we got back to where they were. "I'm impressed ladies."  
"Thanks sensei!" Ino said, grinning.  
"You did well Ino, better than I thought you would truthfully," he said. He looked to me then with amusement twinkling in his eyes. "Don't get me wrong, it was pretty entertaining to watch you smash a wall of rock to rubble, but why didn't you just go around it?"  
I shrugged. "She was expecting me to go around. If I can break through, might as well do that and take her off guard."  
"True enough," he said. His eyes went down to my knuckles. "You might wanna patch those up though."  
I blinked at him and raised my arms, only now noticing that my entire left hand was covered in blood. "Oh, Kami," I muttered.  
"I got some bandages," Asuma said and pushed himself off the fence, moving to go and get them.  
"Don't bother," I said. "I can just heal it, it's not too bad."  
I plopped myself down beside Shika and wiped my hand off with my shirt so that I could see the wound. It was a bit deeper than I had thought, not out of the ordinary considering it was a solid layer of rock I had decided to punch through. With a sigh I pulled a disinfectant off my belt that I kept there for cases just as this and poured it all over my knuckle, closing my eyes against the sting as it did its work. It burned like a bitch, but I had gotten fairly used to it by now after repeated use, and it was better that the cut was deeper since it tended to hurt less. When the sting died down I simply coated my hand in the green medical chakra and regrew the missing layers of skin. Normally I'd just heal the first layer but since I knew that I was definitely going to be sparring more I healed the wound entirely.  
Satisfied I flexed my hand a little. "There."  
"Not bad kid," Asuma said.  
"Thanks."  
We just waited around for the rest of my team to get there. Shika and Cho both went back to taking a nap so I chatted a bit with Ino. We didn't have much to talk about, part of why we'd never really been friends in the first place. Despite that, we managed to find a little bit of common ground when it came to the topic of plants and medicinal herbs. She had a good amount of knowledge based on their flower shop and it was refreshing to have somebody to talk about when it came this kind of thing.  
It was about half an hour before anybody came. Naruto was the first one, followed almost immediately by Sasuke who looked like he'd very pointedly been keeping his distance from the blonde.  
Naruto bounded over to our little group and immediately started chattering about the usual things, much to the annoyance of Ino. Sasuke sat as far away from us as he could of course. Ino tried to move closer to him but he brushed her off with his usual coldness, sending her sulking back to where the rest of us are.  
"Good to know that your sensei retained his flawless punctuality," Asuma said, glancing down at his watch.  
I smirked a little. "I'm sure you're far more familiar with it than we are."  
I'd taken to meditating and practicing with tracking chakra signatures while we waited, inhaling and exhaling rhythmically. People were starting to get around to doing their daily tasks which gave me a few targets to track. It was hard to really tell whether or not I had improved, since I didn't have any kind of definite distance in my mind already. I'd noticed, though, that my little ANBU guard had gone. They'd only hung around for a couple of days, but I never got any kind of information as to why, and I doubted that I ever not - part of me wasn't sure I even wanted to know.  
On the edge of my senses, though, was the familiar signature of our sensei. As he approached I opened my eyes and unwound my legs, falling back onto the grass, a sigh echoing in my chest. I held up my arm and said, "Three, two, one."  
"Yo," Kakashi-sensei called from the entrance to the training grounds, book in hand. "I got a bit sidetracked."  
"That's creepy," Asuma remarked, blowing out a puff of smoke and nodding at Kakashi-sensei.  
"What'd she do now?" Kakashi-sensei asked. He had his hands tucked in his pockets now,  
"Hey, how do you know he's even talking about me?" I asked, scowling at him.  
"Sasuke's too busy being his usual self and I don't think Naruto is capable of being creepy."  
"I'm not creepy."  
"You kind of are," Sasuke called.  
"I don't recall asking you?"  
"You don't need to," he replied. "I'm always ready to vouch against you."  
"Everybody just needs to fuck off," I groaned.  
"She counted down your entrance," Asuma said, finally answering Kakashi-sensei's question.  
"Stalking my chakra signature, kid?" Kakashi-sensei asked.  
"What part of fuck off wasn't crystal clear?" I wandered aloud. "Isn't fuck off a fairly easy to understand sentiment, Shika?"  
"Not when you say it," he replied, his eyes still shut.  
"What?"  
"You're not intimidating enough to pull it off."  
"I'm plenty intimidating."  
"You're about as intimidating as a puppy."  
Naruto and Cho both laughed while Ino gave her delicate little giggle. Even Sasuke smirked.  
I glared up at the clouds. "Did I miss the memo, or something? I don't remember anybody telling me it was 'Pick on Kasumi Day'."  
"Ah, give it a rest kid," Kakashi-sensei said. "We're just teasing you."  
"Yeah, yeah."  
Kakashi-sensei turned his direction to Naruto and Sasuke. "We're going to be training with Team 10 today, so I want you two to get warmed up then we'll set you up to spar."  
"Kasumi and Ino have already taken a turn going at it," Asuma said.  
"Who won?"  
"Kasumi."  
"It was a good match," I said. I'd scooted over and was using Shika's lap as a pillow. If I was going to sulk I at least wanted to be comfortable while I did.  
"Glad to hear it," Kakashi-sensei said. "Then you'll be ready for plenty more today."  
"Always."  
The boys finished up and came back to where all of us were sitting.  
Kakashi-sensei and Asuma talked amongst themselves a little before, likely trying to figure out who should face who. Shika and Cho both refused to fight me. Cho wouldn't want to fight Naruto either, but I get the feeling that he'll at least have to do that one. Finally, they broke apart and Asuma said, "Alright, Sasuke and Shikamaru. You two go."  
I smirked. This would be interesting. "Troublesome," Shika groaned.  
Sasuke stood up, eyeing up the other boy. If Shika took it seriously, this could be a good fight to watch. The two stood across from each other and I watched Shika's eyes. Sasuke still held his usual arrogance, unable shake the cocky grin that perpetually graced his lips, his body formed into an offensive stance. Shika scanned him up and down, taking less than a second before taking a far lazier, casual defensive stance, one that could be easily mistaken as him not really caring unless you got could catch the sharp alertness in his eyes that said otherwise.  
"This'll be good," I murmured.  
"Sasuke's going to win," Ino said with unwavering certainty.  
I looked over at her. "You oughta have a little more faith in your teammate."  
"Shikamaru's too lazy to put up any kind of fight," she said. "I mean just look at him."  
"I wouldn't be so sure," was all I said in reply.  
Asuma scratched his chin. "Has he used his Sharingan yet?" he asked Kakashi-sensei.  
"Once. He can use it, he's just not able to take full advantage of it yet."  
"Kasumi's right," Asuma said. "Sasuke has the strength to win, but Shikamaru's got him in terms of strategic finesse."  
"Yeah, well, I'd love to see him knock the asshole down a notch," I muttered.  
Sasuke took the first swing, something Shika seemed to have expected. The Nara boy took a large leap back, keeping the distance between the two of them. He was at a bit of a disadvantage, given the fact that there weren't a ton of shadows that he could use to get at Sasuke. Besides his clan technique he didn't have much in the way of offensive tactics. Sasuke, for his part, seemed to be pointedly avoiding the few shadows that their little arena offered, making it even more difficult for Shika. Anything Sasuke threw at him, Shika simply avoided it, keeping too much of a distance for Sasuke to effectively close it and get in any meaningful damage.  
Getting impatient, Sasuke started throwing fireballs wildly, hoping to get one to land where Shika was going to be rather than where he already was. None of it worked. I got more joy than I'd ever admit to out of watching the Uchiha get completely denied each and every attack he threw - no matter what he did, Shika was one step ahead of him the entire match.  
Finally, Sasuke managed to close the gap and get in a hit, but I knew better. Sasuke's fist connected and there was a puff of smoke before it was revealed to be a block of wood. Before Sasuke could react, Shika was behind him, hands flying through seals.  
"Earth Release: Practice Brick Technique!"  
Thin walls of rock formed around Sasuke. The intention wasn't just to block Sasuke in, though - they were in just the right position that they each cast shadows on the ground, completely encompassing Sasuke. Before Sasuke could jump away Shika's hands flew into the Rat seal and he called, "Shadow Imitation Technique!"  
His shadow snaked out from behind him, latching onto Sasuke's successfully.  
"You got him?" Asuma asked.  
"Yeah," Shika answered.  
Asuma looked over at Sasuke. "Well?"  
When Sasuke didn't do anything Shika said, "You can answer him."  
"Yeah," was all Sasuke said through clenched teeth.  
"Then Shikamaru's the winner," Asuma called.  
Shika released the shadows and Sasuke scowled sourly - he couldn't throw this off on anything as his reason for losing. When we sparred and I won, he could always just blame it on the fact that I wasn't above playing a bit dirty to win. This though, Shika had gotten him fair and square, playing into his arrogance to goad Sasuke into taking the steps he wanted, turning the entire fight on the Uchiha in a matter of seconds. When he wanted to be, Shika could be a formidable opponent who'd simply out-think you before you even knew that he was doing it.  
"Told you," I said to Ino.  
She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.  
Shika wandered back over, flopping to the ground and announcing, "I'm not doing another one."  
I snorted. Typical.  
Naruto and Cho went next, though the fight was basically over before it started since Cho refused to even fight Naruto. Even when offered a meal afterwards, he wouldn't do it, and Asuma eventually just gave up and it was called a tie.  
Sasuke and Ino fought after them, but again, it was basically a moot fight since Ino wouldn't hit her beloved - Sasuke had no qualms about hitting her, though. He had her pinned with a kunai to her throat in under thirty seconds. She looked like she was going to pass out from joy and Sasuke had what was by far the most disgusted look on his face that I had ever seen. Shika had to cup a hand over my mouth because I was laughing so hard.  
Kakashi-sensei sighed, running a hand through his hair. It seemed like things weren't going quite as well as he'd planned them to. After a few minutes, he said, "Since both of you have gone already why don't Kasumi and Sasuke spar."  
Sasuke stood, regarding me with the typical smug smirk he wore when he knew he was about to kick my ass.  
"Fuck me," I muttered, rolling up into a sitting position. He was going to be out for blood, especially after what happened yesterday. I reached over and grabbed the kunai off Shika's leg, wanting more than just the two I already had on me. He rolled his eyes but didn't seem to care too much since he had already proclaimed that he wasn't fighting anymore for the day.  
I stood up across from Sasuke, eyeing him up and down. He wasn't much worse for the wear. He still had a decent amount of chakra considering how much he blew trying to fight Shika, and besides a few scratches he was relatively untouched given that he had already had two spars.  
"Nervous?" he asked.  
"You wish."  
I gauged my chakra levels carefully. I still had two thirds of my chakra to use during this fight if I was willing to just use all of it and be out for the rest of the day.  
Even when chakra was allowed during our spars, I didn't use my bloodlimit. The chakra demand was too high, especially because by the time we normally started our spars I had already been doing some form of chakra intensive training, leaving me too nervous to try using it for even a second. Now, though, with the chunin exams fast approaching, I knew I was going to need to start practicing with it so I could use it fluidly in combat. When it came time for the finals and everything that happened after I was going to want every advantage that I could have at my disposal.  
This time, I got into a bit of an unusual stance. I simply spread out my legs and had my arms raised, shoulders forward. Sasuke assessed it, looking a little bit unsure as he'd never seen me do this, and in response activated his Sharingan.  
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kakashi-sensei raise his hitae-ate and say, "This is going to be interesting."  
His confidence boosted by having his Sharingan active Sasuke charged forward, ready to strike. Before he got to me I ran my hands through one of the sequences I remembered from yesterday: Rat, Dragon, Hare. As my fingers slipped into their final position I imagined myself disappearing and jumped up in the air, vaulting over Sasuke and landing behind him soundlessly. He looked around, confused, and muttered a curse. It was good to know that even with his Sharingan he couldn't track where I was. I dropped the cloak and delivered a punishing roundhouse kick to his back, adding a bit of chakra to the blow and sending him flying across the clearing. He rolled through the landing and shook his head, apparently having a hard time working with his new found powers.  
Even though they weren't a perfect fit, for now, the hand seals I was using would function as Kakashi-sensei had said. Given how much chakra I had to use for the technique, I was left severely limited with how much I could use when I was striking my opponent, even with what little I saved by using hand seals to initiate it. If I had just gotten behind him and kicked him without my bloodlimit I could have used enough chakra to send him all the way into one of the trees on the other end.  
He got up, eyes blazing. His hands flew through seals and he called, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"  
I slipped out of the way then instantly had to launch myself upwards to avoid another fireball that he'd sent my way. Mid-air I ran my hands through the same seals and cloaked myself. My feet hit the ground and Sasuke started swivelling constantly, refusing to give me a chance to get at him from behind again. Instead, I drew my mask up and threw down one of my new favourite creations - exploding tags loaded with poison. In this case it was a powerful, non-lethal sleeping poison. Exploding tags were fairly easy to make yourself when you took the time to learn how and doing so gave you the chance to put your own spin on them. I may have been horrible with seals but this was an easy one that I was glad I had in my arsenal.  
It blew up at his feet in a massive plume of dust. I jumped away again, landing in one of the trees and dropping the technique. Sasuke sprinted out of the cloud, coughing and shaking his hand in front of his face to try and keep as much of it out of his system as possible. I still had about a third of my reserves, enough to cause a little more mayhem. I redid my cloak before he could figure out where I was and landed on the opposite side of the cloud from him. The dust was still thick enough that it hid me from his sight. I dropped my bloodlimit, running my hands through an easy set of seals and called, "Wind Release: Wind Barrage!"  
All of the poison still hanging in front of me was launched at the Uchiha before he had a chance to get out of it, guaranteeing that he had gotten enough to knock him out for a while. This time he didn't bother running, instead just bunching up his legs and jumping out of it, landing a short ways away from me. I didn't have enough chakra to use anything else, so I was just stuck with my taijutsu and the few kunai I had on me. All of my senbon still lay on the ground from when I fought Ino, though I wouldn't want to try using anything else that's got poison on it after already giving him a fairly strong dosage of something else - it was better to just avoid mixing poisons when fighting friendly targets.  
He coughed, glaring at me. I still had to make it another couple of minutes before he'd be knocked out. Probably figuring that he needed to act fast, he flew at me, fingers rushing through seals.  
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"  
Instead of firing them at me, however, he just spewed a steady stream of flames that had me hastily jumping out of the way, not giving me a chance to get in past his guard. As he continued to shoot the flames at me I danced away from him, sometimes having such close calls that the edges of my shirt were getting scorched. It didn't matter, though - I just had to wait it out.  
Running low on chakra and realizing that he wasn't going to catch me Sasuke closed the distance and let loose a furious barrage of kicks and punches, keeping his form intact despite the poison that I knew was coursing through his veins. I desperately avoided him but I was starting to feel the effects of the spar and I was struggling to keep my composure. He landed a few shots on me but nothing that really caught me. It wasn't until he faked me out, leaning and throwing half a punch to my left before instantly swinging with his other arm, that he managed to land a painful hit on my jaw. Instead of fighting the momentum I went with it, letting my arms fall behind me into something that resembled a crooked back bridge. At the same time he moved forward to go in for the kill. I nailed him under the chin with the front of my foot, sending him reeling back, buying myself enough time to flip back onto my feet and recover while he steadied himself.  
Honestly, I was kind of surprised that they'd let the spar go on this long. Normally if it got to a point like this it'd just be called off yet Kakashi-sensei was simply watching from the side, tracking our movements with a watchful eye.  
Sasuke's chest was heaving. He'd given up on using the Sharingan, probably recognizing that due to his inexperience with it he was only making the fight harder for himself. From where I was standing I noted that his pupils were becoming clouded over and I couldn't hold back a smirk as he stumbled forward, trying to fight off the heaviness he was feeling in his limbs. He was spent and he knew it. He took one step, then another. I stood and watched with my arms at my side as he took one final step before collapsing at my feet completely out cold.  
I let out a sigh, blinking away the grey spots dotting my vision. Even without using any jutsu I had been using chakra in my limbs, whether I wanted to or not, and I was far lower than I'd like to be. The adrenaline seeped out of my veins and I placed a hand over my mouth, wobbling a bit on my feet before I fell to my knees, my stomach emptying itself of its contents. If I hadn't leaned to the left I would have puked all over the Uchiha who lay at my feet. After I stopped retching hands grabbed me from underneath and hoisted me in the air, moving me over to the grass.  
"I'm good, I'm good," I muttered.  
"Kasu that was awesome!" Naruto cheered. "You beat him! I can't even beat him!"  
"Thanks," I said and gave him a little smile.  
"Pretty good, kid," Asuma said. "I'd heard of that little technique of yours, interesting to get to see it in action."  
"I'm still getting used to fighting with it," I replied. I gestured to my now spent body. "This is why I normally don't."  
"I've never gotten to see you fight like that," Shika said.  
"Yeah, it was pretty cool," Cho agreed.  
"It would have been cooler if you didn't puke everywhere after, though," Naruto said and I let out a strained laugh, my head still spinning a little.  
Kakashi-sensei, who seemed to be giving me a general once-over, nodded to himself, apparently satisfied that I was indeed fine. "Well done, kid," he said.  
"Thanks," I murmured. "Where's the asshole? I should probably wake him up."  
Asuma set him down beside me and I unclipped my belt - it was easier to find what I wanted when it was just laid out in front of me.  
"When'd you come up with those tags?" Kakashi-sensei asked. "I've never seen you use them before."  
"I had a lot of time on my hands after we got back," I said absently. "Weird shit comes out of this head when I'm bored."  
It took me a couple of minutes but I finally managed to get what I was looking for and poured out a capful, using a little extra because of how much I'd managed to get into his system. I opened his mouth and tipped the contents in, running my hand down his neck to force him to swallow it.  
"He's going to be pissed when he wakes up," Naruto said, practically bouncing in place.  
"Why are you so happy about that?"  
He just shrugged, goofy grin planted on his face. I rubbed my hands against my tempts to try and ward off the killer headache pounding against my skull. As long as I wasn't there when he woke up I didn't really care how pissed he was.  
"I think we'll call it there for the day," Kakashi-sensei said.  
"I need a nap," I announced, collapsing back against whoever was sitting behind me and closing my eyes.  
"Yeah, I'm sure you do," Kakashi-sensei muttered. "Your mom is going to kill me."  
I laughed. "They're both at the restaurant, you're safe."  
"Can you walk?"  
"Probably not."  
He picked me back up bridal style, turning his head to Asuma. "I'm gonna get her back before she passes out."  
"Got it. The rest of you are dismissed too," Asuma said. "Like Kakashi said that's probably enough for the day."  
"Wait, wait," I murmured.  
"What?"  
I tossed the rest of the vial at Asuma who caught it easily. "If he doesn't wake up within ten minutes give him another capful. If that still doesn't wake him up you might want to take him to the hospital."  
Asuma raised an eyebrow. "Can what you used on him kill him?"  
"It shouldn't, but you never know who's going to have a bad reaction."  
"Got it."  
"Okay, I'm done," I said, my words a bit slurred.  
Kakashi-sensei flew across the rooftops to get to my house rather than walk. He remembered the way from a couple of weeks ago, which was good because I was practically falling asleep.  
We got to the house and he dropped down from the roof onto the doormat, landing with far more grace than I could ever hope to. He jiggled the doorknob but it was locked.  
"Check under the flowerpot."  
He turned to his left and leaned over, lifting the pot that sat on the windowsill to reveal a small silver key. As I thought, when he opened the door we were greeted by silence, something Kakashi-sensei was probably thankful for.  
"Where's your room?"  
"Up the stairs, first door on the right," I managed.  
He brought me up to my room, gently setting me down on the bed with a sigh. "There you go kid."  
"How would I ever do anything without you Kakashi-sensei?"  
He snorted. "Get some sleep, kid. And if your mom asks I wasn't present when you did this to yourself."  
"Got it," I said.  
He wandered out of the room and I kicked my shoes off, not bothering to try to get changed before I gave into my body's demands and fell unconscious.  
.-.-.  
Two people stood before what looked like a massive crystal ball. On the left, a vibrant woman, a waterfall of fine silver hair falling all down her back, her clothes the most gorgeous blue that I had ever laid my eyes on. She turned to the side, revealing eyes of glittering gold, though her gaze was set on the man who stood beside her.  
He was shrouded in darkness, a simple robe of black cascading across his body, pooling at his feet. His skin was pale as snow, the black eyes that stared forward in stark contrast to that. Just from their physical appearances it was apparent that they were something above human.  
"Things have gone well so far," the woman murmured. "She's progressing well."  
"It's too slow for my liking," the man said.  
"That's not the girl's fault," the woman replied in a chastising tone.  
"True, but it doesn't change the fact that time is indeed lagging behind."  
"If it's truly that much of a bother to you speak to Tiali, she'll be able to do something about it."  
The man scoffed. "You know I have. She spoke nothing but riddles about the delicate fabrics that weave reality."  
"You're far too dramatic," the woman said and rolled her eyes.  
"I am anything but." He strode around, a cloud of black following in his wake. "Not a single word that left her mouth made any sense to me. I swear, she does it on purpose."  
"Regardless of the speed at which things are occurring, things have so far fallen on track," the woman said, pointedly changing the subject.  
"We'll see if it stays that way."  
"She has no reason to deviate yet."  
"She'll be tempted, I assure you," the man said. "You know how mortals are with their bleeding hearts."  
She waved her hand across the the surface in front of her and the ball altered the image it was displaying. "What of the boy?"  
"He's making important strides of his own," the man said, his voice a soft velvet.  
The woman walked around the crystal ball, the image altering itself depending on her position. She moved with such grace that it was almost as if she were walking on air. "Has Cha mentioned anything?"  
"Not yet," the man said. "What of Oda?"  
"Nothing as well," the woman said. "I suppose they're a bit busy."  
"Quite. This isn't the only world in peril."  
The woman gave a sigh. "They can only do so much at once, as can we."  
"We could do much more than those mortals down there," he said. "We would not get caught up in the silly emotions that they are bound to."  
"That is not within our powers," she said, giving him a severe look, like this wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation. "It is not our place."  
"I know," the man said, an almost tired look crossing his features.  
She walked back over to him, placing a hand on his cheek, leaving a glittering gold residue on every inch of his skin that she touched. "They chose their champions well, we must trust them."  
"I know," the man said again and pressed a kiss on the woman's lips.  
.-.-.  
I jolted up, breathing heavy. The sun was streaming through my window, the alarm on my clock blaring its usual morning alarm at me. I slammed a hand down on the off button. What kind dream was that? Something about it felt off. I couldn't place it, a familiarity that felt so painfully obvious, yet it eluded me in a way few things ever did nowadays. I shook my head, rubbing at my eyes and putting the dream out of my head - it was just that, a dream.  
I got out of bed, cringing at the stiffness and soreness in my muscles. My spars yesterday had been some of the most intense in a while. I didn't want to waste any more chakra after yesterday so I just left my body the way it was, cringing as I made my way downstairs to grab something to eat before I left for training.  
"Morning Kasumi," papa said as I stepped off the last step.  
"Mornin'," I said, my voice still hoarse from sleep.  
"Sleep well?"  
"Very."  
"I'm guessing training was more on the intense side yesterday?"  
"That's one way to put it," I replied. "It was good though."  
He made a little noise in the back of his throat. I reached under into the cabinets, pulling out the toaster and fiddling with the settings - mama always left it the way she liked it, burnt to an absolute crisp. Rifling through the drawers I pulled out the loaf of bread and popped a couple of pieces in, making myself some coffee while I waited for it to be ready.  
"One of the neighbours told me she saw your sensei carrying you home."  
I cringed. Oh, great. "Does mama know?"  
"I didn't tell her, don't worry."  
"I wasn't hurt or anything," I defended. "I had just worn myself out. We were doing a lot of sparring yesterday."  
Papa smirked a little, taking a sip of his tea and flipping the page on his newspaper. "Did you win?"  
"You better believe it," I answered, unable to hide the grin.  
"That's my little ninja," papa said and ruffled my hair as I walked past him, toast in hand.  
I quickly finished my breakfast and got changed, running out the door to avoid getting there any later than I already was going to be.  
.-.-.  
It was a rather uneventful day of training. Aside from the unusual crankiness of Sasuke who, of course, wanted a rematch from me as soon as I got there, everything was par for the course. Because of the sparring we did yesterday Kakashi-sensei held off on anything overly rigourous. We did a few taijutsu stances, ran through our battle positions, the boys did some light chakra control training and Kakashi-sensei worked on some of my more advanced taijutsu stances with me instead of doing anything more with my bloodlimit.  
The only thing really out of the ordinary for the day was the bickering between Sasuke and Naruto. Our first day back I'd been too busy working with Kakashi-sensei to really pay much attention to what they had been doing. Yesterday we'd been sparring the entire time, so we didn't work much on training in a team, not giving the two of them enough time to really interact. The tension between the two of them started becoming apparent when we were trying to work on our battle positions. The entire time the two of them were throwing comments at each other, going beyond their usual stupid remarks and inching into the territory of actual fighting words. I knew it was bound to happen, but it made me wonder if I'd missed something during the week that they trained together without me.  
I tried to push it out of my mind for the time being. After training, Naruto and I decided to go to Ichiraku's for lunch. We chatted on our way there, Naruto going on about a multitude of topics ranging from our annoying teammate to his most recent interactions with a certain pink-haired girl.  
"I mean, she wouldn't really talk to me, but she didn't outright yell at me, so I'm taking it as progress," he said with a grin.  
"Whatever keeps you going idiot," I said. "I still think you oughta just give up on her and find somebody else."  
"Kaka you know I can't do that," he whined.  
"I know you can, trust me," I answered.  
Having been too occupied with talking, I had stopped paying attention to our surroundings. I reached out my senses a little and realized that we had three little signatures following us, all clumped up on top of each other.  
"I mean she's just so - "  
"Wait."  
"What?"  
I turned around, my eyes flittering across the back road that we were walking on. Naruto did the same and his eyes landed on the rectangle shaped 'rock' that was sitting off to the side.  
"That's the worst disguise I've ever seen!" he shouted, pointing directly at them. "What are you thinking, a square rock?"  
"I think it's more of a rectangle," I commented.  
"Awh man, he saw straight through our camouflage!" a voice cried through the two breathing holes in the front. "I guess I shouldn't have expected any less from my greatest rival."  
There was a bright flash of light followed by three mini-explosions. A great puff of smoke erupted from the ground and when the dust cleared, three children were sitting on the ground, coughing heavily.  
"Oh… too much gunpowder," Konohamaru said.  
They each jumped up, running through their various little introductions and such. Naruto for his part seemed fairly unimpressed with them.  
"Hey, boss, come on you gotta come play with us!" Konohamaru said. "You promised you'd play ninja!"  
Naruto rubbed his head, clearly searching for some kind of excuse to get out of it.  
"We're going to lunch," I told the little boy. "So you'll just have to wait."  
"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto said. "What she said!"  
"But boss, you always go to lunch with your girlfriend!"  
I snorted. "Girlfriend?"  
"Yeah that's what you are aren't you?"  
"Ew no," Naruto shouted. "She's not my girlfriend!"  
I raised an eyebrow. "Ew?"  
Naruto turned bright red, raising his hands up. The little group of kids snickered to themselves.  
"I mean… I'm sure you'd be a good girlfriend… you're just… no… I mean…"  
"Calm down idiot, I'm just bugging you."  
He let out a sigh of relief.  
"Haha boss has a girlfriend, boss has a girlfriend!" Konohamaru cheered. The little two echoed his words.  
"You little twerp, why I oughta - "  
Naruto raised his fist and the group scrambled away, Naruto chasing them. I looked up towards where they were going and saw two of the sand siblings strolling down the alleyway, completely ignoring our group. Internally I steeled myself for what I knew was going to be a nasty encounter.  
As I knew he would, Konohamaru ran face-first into Kankuro.  
Kankuro didn't seem too fazed, instead only staring down at the boy, a slight level of annoyance tinging his features. "Need something, brat?"  
I didn't make out what Konohamaru said but in response Kankuro reached down, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and hoisting him in the air. He held him there for a minute, steadily tightening his grip on the kid's shirt.  
"So, this hurt yet, punk?" Kankuro asked, a dark smirk on his face.  
"Konohamaru!" Naruto shouted.  
"Put him down Kankuro. You know if you don't, you're going to pay for it later," Temari said, glancing around.  
"Yeah put him down!"  
Kankuro ignored them, instead further tightening his grip on Konohamaru. "Come on, we got a few minutes before he gets here, let's just mess with these twerps, huh?"  
Konohamaru kicked at him furiously, wiggling as hard as he could to get out of the vice grip. "Put me down you jerk!"  
"See how feisty this one is? It'll be fun, we can beat the spirit right out of them."  
"Put him down," Naruto growled, charging at Kankuro.  
I walked forward, frown set on my face.  
Before Naruto could even get close Kankuro tugged on the invisible chakra strings along the ground, knocking the blonde boy on his back. "What? What was that?"  
"You're a leaf genin too? I guess your village really is full of wimps."  
Naruto jumped to his feet just as I got to him. He went to run again but I grabbed the edge of his shirt, yanking him back some.  
"Hey, cut it out… that hurts!" Konohamaru cried.  
Naruto opened his mouth and I shot him a severe look. "Don't say anything stupid."  
"Huh." Kankuro observed me with clear annoyance. "Looks like this one isn't quite as much of an idiot as her little friends. Still a little runt, though." He gave Konohamaru a shake and the boy yelled something unintelligible in response. "Know what I do with runts when they run their mouths? I break 'em in half."  
Temari sighed. "Fine, whatever. Just remember, I'm not involved in any of this."  
"Heh, that works for me. I'll deal with this little squirt, then the rest of you will be no problem."  
Kankuro raised his fist. Naruto ran at him in response, but before either of them could do anything I slipped my hand into my back pocket, pulling out three of my senbon and tossing them at his wrist and hand. These ones weren't poisoned, as I hadn't gotten a chance to coat my new ones yet, but it would still work just fine.  
He dropped Konohamaru in surprise, whipping his head in my direction. Temari turned to look at me as well, a curious glint in her eyes. Sasuke was nearby, I could feel that much, but he wasn't close enough to interfere yet. As annoying as the little kid could be I wasn't going to let him get a nasty shiner just because the asshole was running a bit late.  
Konohamaru scrambled up from his spot on the ground, standing back behind me.  
"That's enough," I said in a steely tone. "No need to cause trouble."  
"Throwing senbon, really?" he asked. "Get over here and fight me for real."  
"I don't need to."  
"All talk and no fight, you're exactly the kind of pesky little snot that I hate the most."  
"Hey, at least I pick on people my own size."  
He scowled at me, his hand going to the bandages that wound around the puppet on his back. I narrowed my eyes, getting myself into a defensive stance just in case.  
"Wait, what?" Temari exclaimed. "You're not going to use the Crow for this, are you?"  
He slid it off his back and set it proudly at his feet, but my attention was pulled elsewhere. Gliding towards us was the signature I knew had to be Gaara's - it was a thick, massive, and churning with hatred.  
"I'm not so sure you want to do that," I muttered, my eyes glued to the tree behind him.  
"Oh? Why's that, brat?" he asked smugly.  
Him and his sister seemed to notice that I was no longer paying them any attention.  
"Kankuro, back off," a voice said from up where I was looking. Everybody else followed my gaze. "You're an embarrassment to our village."  
I could tell that Sasuke, too, was now situated up in that tree, though he was still hidden by the foliage it provided.  
Kankuro laughed nervously. "Oh… uh… hey Gaara."  
"Have you forgotten why we've come all this way so soon?"  
"I haven't, I swear," Kankuro said quickly. "They're the ones who challenged us! They started all of it! What happened was - "  
"Shut up," Gaara cut in coldly. "Or I'll kill you."  
The casual tone in which he used to threaten murder against his own brother sent chills down my spine. It was one thing to just watch this and know it was going to happen, but to listen to somebody say it was a whole other story. I didn't dare take my eyes off him.  
"You - you're right, I was totally out of line. I'm sorry Gaara."  
The boy turned his head towards us, not bothering to move down from his position on the tree branch. "I apologize for his behavior and any trouble he has caused you."  
From where I was standing, I could see Gaara and Sasuke sizing each other up before the prior dissolved into sand, reappearing in front of his siblings. He looked directly at me, sizing me up in a cold, calculating manner, as he did with Sasuke before turning back to his siblings.  
"We didn't come here to play games," Gaara said. "Let's go."  
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Kankuro said.  
They turned to walk away before Sasuke jumped down from his spot, landing in front of where I was standing.  
"Sasuke, what the hell are you doing here?" Naruto shouted. I elbowed him in the ribs.  
As usual the Uchiha ignored him entirely, staring forward at the three retreating backs of the sand siblings. "Hold on."  
Temari stopped, shifting back towards us. "What?"  
"Those are Sand Village headbands, aren't they?" he asked. "Our countries may be allies, but no shinobi can enter a village other than their own without permission. So what are you really doing here?"  
She scoffed. "Have you guys been living under a rock? We have permission." As proof she reached into her pocket, displaying her ID for all of us to see. "We're from the Land of Wind, yes. We're genin from Hidden Sand that are here for the chunin exams."  
"What's a chunin exam?" Naruto asked.  
"You are clueless, aren't you?" she laughed. The blonde bristled at her condescending tone.  
"You graduate those exams to be a chunin," Konohamaru said.  
With that, the three went to leave, again, before Sasuke spoke up again. "You, identify yourself."  
"Me?" Temari asked, pointing at herself.  
"No, the one with the gourd on his back," Sasuke said.  
Gaara turned to face us, his expression entirely blank. "I am Gaara of the Desert. I'll admit, I'm curious as to who you are as well."  
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," he proclaimed arrogantly.  
"Hey, wanna know who I am, too?" Naruto exclaimed.  
"I really couldn't care less."  
Gaara gave our little group one last look, his eyes hovering on me for a split second longer than the rest, then the three of them jumped away in unison.  
I traced his signature as they moved away at lightning speed. It was… well… fascinating to study in a morbid way. Kind of like when you see a car crash - it's horrifying to watch, yet you can't stop looking at it. It reminded me greatly of Naruto's except so much more filled with anger and darkness than I think the little blonde was capable of possessing. The comparison was a stunning reminder that the two really were similar, except that Gaara lost the only person that was able to prevent him from becoming a sociopath.  
Naruto stomped his foot, giving a cry of annoyance. "Konohamaru, I'm cool, aren't I?"  
"I mean… compared to Sasuke and your girlfriend, you're pretty lame," the little boy said.  
"What?" Naruto shouted, collapsing on the ground. "Kasu I can handle... but Sasuke? No way I won't let him show me up!"  
"Shut up, loser," Sasuke said.  
The two descended into their usual fighting. Further behind us, hidden in the trees, I sensed three other chakra signatures, who I could only guess were Team Dosu. I glanced over at where I knew they were sitting, raising my eyebrow curiously but looked away after a second, not wanting to make it obvious that I knew they were there. We'd called on enough trouble today as it is.  
.-.-.  
The next morning I was the first one at the training grounds. As usual, I got started on warming up, going for a short jog around and thoroughly stretching out my muscles. I had an hour before the others got there and at least two or three before Kakashi-sensei was going to get here as well. After taking it easy yesterday I was ready for one of our usual training sessions. Off to my right there was a small lake that I moved over to, wanting to add a bit of a new dynamic to my regular taijutsu warm up.  
Given that it could never hurt to practice on my chakra control I stepped onto the lake, fueling a bit of chakra to my feet. I couldn't think of the last time that I'd used the walk on water technique. I walked a bit of the ways in before starting my taijutsu stances, letting my weight drop and settle amongst my limbs. Walking on water didn't use too much chakra, especially if you had good control. All it took was a paper-thin layer of chakra that you could pretty much maintain without thinking about it after you'd done it enough times. I wasn't quite there yet but I was close enough that I didn't worry about falling in at all.  
I closed my eyes, flowing through the movements that I knew like the back of my hand. The quiet of being the earliest one here was always the best part about it. We tended to work far enough out that none of the other shinobi out for training could disturb us - though I think the intention was probably so that they could train in peace, not us, given how well all our team got along. I didn't know how much time passed before Naruto arrived but I just continued on with what I was doing. He sat there quietly, presumably watching me.  
I breathed as I moved, dodging and weaving against an invisible opponent. I started on some of the more advanced techniques Kakashi-sensei introduced me to yesterday. One of the nice things about my memory was that it made learning new stance sets incredibly easy, taking only one viewing of it to have it forever. I let the images of Kakashi-sensei going through the stance set flow through my head and I copied the moves as I went.  
I ran through the set on loop until I was satisfied with how comfortable the movements felt to me. Finally I took a deep breath out, reaching out with my senses to find that both Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei had arrived while I was doing all of this. I opened my eyes, chest heaving and sweat dripping from my brow; I winced at the how harsh the sun felt after having my eyes shut for such a long period of time.  
The boys were off doing the usual activities Kakashi-sensei used to occupy them while he trained with me. Said white-haired shinobi was sitting underneath a tree on shore, book open in front of him.  
"You oughta be careful with zoning out like that," he said. "If I had been an enemy shinobi you'd be dead right now."  
"But you're not," I said. Glancing around I started to realize that I'd been running through my stances considerably longer than I'd meant to. "How long was I training for?"  
"I've been here watching for a bit over half an hour, but Naruto said you'd been going at it since he got here too which was an hour and a half ago."  
"Huh." I walked off of the water, not even noticing a difference between the water and solid ground. "My chakra reserves haven't even taken much of a hit."  
"Your control is good enough that it wouldn't."  
I nodded, sitting down in front of him and stretching out my muscles. "Were waiting for me?"  
He shrugged. "You were already doing what I was going to work on with you so not really."  
"No bloodlimit training today?"  
"Tomorrow," Kakashi-sensei answered. "I want to be sure you have those taijutsu stances completely down before we go back to that."  
"So what… just keep doing what I was already doing?" I asked.  
"For another hour or so. Then we need to work on our combat positions seeing that went as well as it did yesterday."  
I walked over to my bag, getting a drink of water before going back to what I was doing. Working on our combat formations, just like the day before, was a complete and utter disaster. The boys dissolved to fighting within ten minutes to the point where Kakashi-sensei finally broke it up himself and sent them to go work on their chakra control exercises. It was worrying to watch.  
Part of me hoped that in this timeline, Sasuke could be in a place where he was redeemable before he left the village. Just seeing the two of them like this, though, I doubted that that was a possibility. There was too much darkness in him right now, too much anger at everybody and everything. Sure, he'd improved over time but… when he let his arrogant facade fall away, he was still that devastated little boy who had nobody in this world he trusted.  
Once training was over Kakashi-sensei called us together.  
"I know that we haven't gone on that many missions yet as a team, but I have decided that to recommend all three of you for the chunin exams coming up," he said. He reached back into his pocket and pulled out three slips of paper. "These are your application forms."  
I had mixed feelings to do with the chunin exams. On one hand, a large part of me would be thrilled to become a chunin. I doubted that I could, but it would be pretty nice, getting to go on missions that didn't involve saving a cat or babysitting. The amount of 'little girl' comments I got would definitely see a steady decrease with one of those flak jackets too.  
On the other hand - the logical one - there was going to be a huge shift in the world as I knew it. Changes that, frankly, left me terrified.  
Chunin exams meant meeting up with Orochimaru in the forest of death and the eventual departure of Sasuke from the village. It meant Naruto becoming Jiraiya's student and leaving for two years. It meant the death of our Hokage. The chunin exams meant a lot of things were going to be happening in the next couple of months and I honestly didn't know if I was ready for it.  
"Ahh awesome, you rock Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted as he tackled the poor man in a hug, startling me from my reverie.  
"Yeah, yeah," he said. "It's voluntary, so if any of you don't think you're ready right now you don't have to do it. If you'd like to take part in them, five days from now go to room 301 with a signed application, 3pm sharp."  
Sasuke smirked to himself, taking the sheet and walking off with it.  
"Where are you going?" Naruto called after him.  
"Just leave it Naruto," I said, taking the other two sheets from Kakashi-sensei and handing one of them to him.  
Seemingly distracted by his wild daydreams Naruto grinned down at the form, laughing to himself and walking off. I went to say goodbye to our sensei but he had already disappeared too. Typical.  
"Hey, Naruto, wait up!"  
.-.-.  
"Naruto! You and your girlfriend should come play ninja with us!" a voice called from up ahead of us.  
I looked up from the book I'd been reading, taking stock of my surroundings. Konohamaru and his friends were gathered in a circle on the bridge in front of us, laughing and smiling, in perfect position for Iruka to swoop down for his little ruse. I opened up my senses and found him perched in the trees with his genjutsu already on. The nice thing about being able to see chakra signatures is that genjutsus like these only changed outward appearances, meaning I could still see and evaluate the chakra signature underneath with perfect clarity.  
"I don't have any dangerous ninja business, so yeah sure, I'll come play," Naruto said with a grin. "How 'bout you Kasu?"  
"No thanks, I'll just hang out and read for a bit while you do, though," I responded, forcing myself to look away from Iruka.  
"Okay."  
Naruto moved forward and Iruka moved into position. There was a small flash behind Moegi and a man, whom I knew to be Iruka, appeared. It was a pretty good disguise. Before the kids could react he grabbed the girl and jumped upwards onto the top part of the bridge, giving a stereotypical evil villain laugh. I had to hold back an eyeroll.  
"Naruto! Konohamaru! Help!" she cried, wiggling against the grip.  
"Hey what are you doing with Moegi you big thug!"  
"Let her go, now!"  
Iruka gave another laugh and hopped across the top of the bridge before disappearing off of the end of it.  
"Kasu, Konohamaru, come on!"  
"I'm with ya boss!"  
"Wait me too!"  
I followed the three of them up, flying through the trees next to them. Iruka was going fast but I had no problem keeping up, holding myself back to avoid getting too close. We were going pretty far out into the forest.  
"Oh, so it looks like you can keep up with me, eh?"  
"Stop right there you creep!" Naruto shouted. "Moegi don't worry, we're coming!"  
Konohamaru and Udon were left behind after only a minute or two of the chase.  
Slowly but surely Iruka pulled ahead of us, fading away into the foliage of the thickly populated forest. The chakra of the trees gave some interference but I could still keep an eye on where Iruka was going without a significant struggle.  
"Kasu, do you know where he is?" Naruto called to me. "I can't see him anymore."  
"Yeah I've got an eye on his signature," I said.  
Suddenly Iruka's signature dropped downwards into a clearing and I stopped, Naruto mimicking my movements. I turned to him and held a finger to my lips, quietly moving forward a couple of branches, peering downwards. Naruto jumped beside me and I pointed down.  
"I'll stay up here and keep watch so that nobody can ambush you," I whispered.  
Naruto nodded and paused for a second, clearly trying to formulate a plan. I waited, watching the wheels in his head turn until he grinned, making a clone of himself.  
"Yeah," him and the clone said at the same time, giving each other a thumbs up.  
The clone went up ahead while the real Naruto snuck around, using the trees to get himself to the other side of the clearing.  
I perked my ears curiously, using a bit of chakra in my ears to heighten my hearing.  
"Let me go!" Moegi cried, her voice quickly muffled by cloth.  
Iruka gave another cheesy, maniacal laugh. "I thought the shinobi of the Leaf Village were powerful, now I see they're nothing but weaklings!"  
That man may have been a great teacher but he was one of the worst actors I'd ever seen.  
He heard the feet of Naruto's clone hit the ground with a soft thump and turned. "Well, that was quick!"  
"Hey you, you fat old man! What do you think you're doing with Moegi?"  
"What am I doing, that's your question? Do you really want to know?" Iruka said and raised a kunai in a semi-threatening fashion. "If you move, the brat's finished!"  
"She's just a kid, let her go! You don't need to do this!"  
"I want the first Hokage's scroll of sealing! If you don't bring it to me, I won't let her go."  
"Scroll of sealing?" the clone asked, buying Naruto a bit of time.  
Iruka took a step forward, likely purposefully giving Naruto some room to work. Having been waiting for that Naruto slipped down, sneaking behind Iruka's back to untie Moegi and sneak a dummy up in its place.  
"Don't just stand there like a fool. Hurry, get me that scroll," he demanded.  
The clone scoffed. "Yeah, right. What happens if I say no?"  
"Then I guess you don't care what happens to this girl."  
"What girl?" the clone asked triumphantly. "All I see are two dummies: you, and the one made of straw beside you."  
"What? Where'd she go?"  
"Up here!" the real Naruto called. "With the greatest ninja in Konoha!"  
"Yep, that's my boss," Moegi laughed.  
"What? Clone jutsu?" Iruka called. "I'll get you punk!"  
"You just don't know when you're outclassed, do you?" the clone shouted, launching a net overtop of Iruka before three more clones followed him up and tackled him.  
Finally Konohamaru and his friend caught up to us, running past me and to the clearing.  
"Boss! Boss we're here!" they shouted as they ran towards where Naruto was sitting on top of Iruka.  
"It's about time!"  
"Oh, Konohamaru!" Moegi cried, clinging to the little boy. "I was really scared!"  
"It's alright, I got ya," Konohamaru said. He looked to Naruto. "Did you get him boss, can we see him?"  
Naruto got up, going over to his friends just in time for Iruka to slip away.  
"Yeah, he's right here if - " Naruto started, then let out a cry of frustration. "What? Where'd he go?"  
"Looks like he used substitution jutsu on you boss."  
I hopped down from my spot and joined them in the clearing.  
"Kasu, do you know where he went?" Naruto asked.  
It was kind of hard to imagine what it was like, not being able to tell when there's somebody standing literally ten feet away from you. I'd grown so accustomed to it after I really started to develop my sensitivity a few years ago that I couldn't imagine living without it.  
I felt Iruka's signature shift slightly, tensing curiously.  
"No idea," I lied. "He's not anywhere in the area anymore."  
"Oh man!" Naruto cried.  
"Boss, we can't let him get away!" Konohamaru said.  
I shrugged. For some reason, he was still there, waiting for something. "He's already gone. I can sense people who are blocks away, but he's not here anymore," I said.  
"Whatever, it doesn't matter anymore," Naruto said. "Moegi is safe so that's all that counts."  
They went off into chattering, the little kids fawning over Naruto and said boy happily taking in the sea of praise. I just kept my eye on Iruka. Didn't he have other genin he needed to test? He had to test all of the Rookie 9 before the night was up. Already, it was at least half-past noon, he was losing daylight.  
Oh.  
He had to test all of the Rookie 9.  
I was a part of the Rookie 9, now.  
This was Naruto's test.  
"I'm going to head home, mama and papa said that they needed me to help at the restaurant today," I said, rather loudly and pointedly.  
"'Kay, I'm going to hang out here," Naruto said with a grin.  
"Later."  
I jumped up into the trees and waited for half a second. Iruka's signature did the same, moving up in elevation and circling around near to where I was. I flew through the branches for half a mile or so before stopping and dropping down, leaning against the trunk of the tree near me. Iruka jumped down too, genjutsu still active, waiting for me to say something.  
"Couldn't you have picked a more attractive villain?" I asked. "I mean, I get you were going for the whole 'painfully evil' look but c'mon. You just look like a creepy old man Iruka-sensei."  
With that Iruka let it drop, scratching his head. "How'd you know it was me?"  
I smirked a little. "Genjutsu doesn't mask chakra signatures," I said.  
"Is that why you didn't help Naruto?" he asked.  
"Well, he didn't really need my help," I said. "I figured you probably cared more about whether Naruto could save her or not. If he was really struggling I would have stepped in, but the confidence boost of being able to do it himself is good for him."  
He sighed. "I suppose I won't be able to test you now."  
"That's what you're doing, then?" I asked even though I already knew the answer. "Testing us for the chunin exams?"  
"What makes you think it has anything to do with the chunin exams?" he inquired.  
"Most genin have at least eight missions under their belt before they take the chunin exam and we've only got one - an A-rank mission, but still only one. I get why Kakashi-sensei nominated us anyways, considering having to wait a year to get our try at it sounds like a pain in the ass, but that doesn't help our lack of experience any."  
"That's correct, yes," he confirmed. "If it makes you feel better, all three of the rookie genin teams were nominated and are being tested by me."  
"It does a little."  
"Do me a favor though, and don't tell Naruto it was me, okay?"  
"Don't worry, if I was going to tell him I would have just said it when I first noticed you on the bridge there."  
"Thanks," he said. "Wait, how soon did you know I was there?"  
"As soon as I started paying attention on the bridge," I said. "So like… as soon as Konohamaru started talking to Naruto. I probably would have noticed you a bit sooner if I wasn't reading."  
"Huh. Kakashi warned me that you might recognize me coming but I didn't think you'd figure me out that easily," Iruka said.  
"Yeah, well, your acting didn't exactly help any either."  
"That bad?"  
"Sorry."  
"Man," he muttered.  
"Less laughing," I coached. "You reminded me of some kind of cartoon villain."  
"I got it, I got it," he said with a laugh.  
I smiled at him, the realization that I hadn't really spoken to Iruka since I graduated hitting me like a ton of bricks. Sure, I saw him in passing every once in awhile, but I never really got the chance to sit down and talk with my old sensei. It was a bittersweet feeling.  
"I gotta get going, Iruka-sensei," I said. "Good luck with the rest. You're gonna need it to get Shikamaru off his ass."  
"Language Kasumi!"  
I stuck my tongue out at him and flew off into the trees, running off back to the village.  
.-.-.  
"Slowly, carefully," I murmured to myself, dropping ingredients into the churning pot. I gave the contents a gentle stir, the steam curling up and swirling off into the sky. After going home to change I went over to the Nara compound, not having any other plans for the rest of the day and wanting to put a bit of work in on my antidote. "Just a little - "  
"How's it going?"  
I jumped, my knee knocking into the pot of ingredients with a gasp. The pot tumbled over, dumping its contents all over the dirt. My hand went onto my knee, letting out a hiss of pain - the side of that pot was fucking hot.  
"What the fuck Shika?"  
The boy blinked at me, taken aback. "I thought you'd know I was here."  
"I wasn't paying attention," I managed, lifting my hand off my knee and wincing at the bright red skin. I lit my hand up with green chakra, covering the entire area with my palm, pulling the pain and mending the tarnished skin.  
"Sorry."  
"It's fine," I muttered, slipping on my gloves and righting the pot atop the burner. At least he did sound like he meant it, but that didn't change the fact that I'd just wasted half an hour of work and a potentially valid antidote.  
I stood up and grabbed the water jug, adding what was left of it into the pot on the burner and grabbing my basket of prepared herbs. I glanced down at the sheet, deftly picking out what was on there and putting them in a separate basket for easy access.  
"What's the point of that thing?" Shika asked, pointing at the book I had open in front of me. "You always have it with you, can't you just remember all of it?"  
"I do remember all of it," I said. "Just because I remember it doesn't mean I can't get mixed up and make mistakes. With how much time these take and how bad it can go I'd rather just be extra sure of what I'm doing."  
"Weird."  
"Not really."  
"Whatever, Kas. Just seems like a waste of paper to me."  
I waited for the water to boil, sitting back on one of the cleaner parts of the ground. It was a quiet night out, the deer running around the forest, the trees shaking in the breeze. I pulled my knees up and dropped my chin on them.  
"What are you even doing out here?" I asked. "You never come out here unless your mom makes you."  
"Bored."  
"So you didn't just miss me and wanted to come and visit?"  
"Why would I miss you?"  
"Wow, that's rude. Normally that's my job."  
"You're rubbing off on me," he said.  
I scooted over, bumping shoulders with him and leaning my head on his shoulder. It was quiet for a couple of minutes before I asked, "How do you feel about the chunin exams?"  
He looked down at me, confused. "How'd you know we were entered?"  
"Did you get attacked by some weird shinobi today?"  
"What? Yeah, how - "  
"That was Iruka," I murmured. "He's tasked with making sure all of us rookies are fit to be entered in the exam, he told me that all three of the genin teams had been entered. Don't tell Naruto that it was Iruka, though."  
The boy shrugged noncommittally. "I haven't really thought about the chunin exams."  
"You're not worried at all?" I asked.  
"Not really," he said. "It sounds like it's just going to be a boring few days. Why, are you?"  
I just kind of shrugged too, not really in the mood to give any kind of answer.  
"Your water is boiling."  
The sound of the water bubbling reached my ears and I leaned forward, kneeling in front of the pot. I gave a short glance to the page, rather pointlessly considering I didn't even properly read anything on it, and dropped some larrea tridentata petals into my pestle, crushing them into a fine powder and pouring them into the pot. I moved my face away as the steam came up and gave the pot a gentle stir. The water turned a light yellow, the powder dissolving into the water.  
When the yellow faded from the concoction I slipped my gloves back on, grabbing five of the sambucus nigra berries, more commonly known as elderberries, and slicing them down the middle with the small knife in my basket, squeezing the juice into the pot one by one. I carefully placed what was left of the berries into the discard basket I had off to the side and gave the pot another gentle stir, eyes locked on its contents. It was almost ten minutes of constant stirring until I could add the next ingredient. The dark purple juice from the elderberries slowly faded into a light violet as the useful properties of it activated. So far so good.  
"That smells terrible," Shika remarked. "No wonder you always stink when you come into the house after working out here."  
I pulled off one of my gloves so I could reach back a hand and smack him on the leg without bothering to take my attention off the pot. He cursed, jumping back a little.  
"Shut up," I ordered. "I need to focus."  
"Violent woman," he muttered.  
This was one of the harder parts of this particular antidote. The next herb that had to go in, arctium lappa, was also purple in colour, similar to how the pot already looked now. The only way to know whether it activated or not wasn't visible, but rather in the way the concoction began to smell. It had to shift from a vaguely sour smell, like berries that hadn't fully ripened, to a sweeter sugary fragrance. It was subtle but there wasn't anything else I could do. On the bright side, it tended to be a rather quick change, never taking more than five minutes.  
I dropped the herb in and moved my face overtop of the pot to allow the steam to flow into my nose. I could feel Shika's eyes on me. Now I just had to hope that it didn't explode on me. If it did, well… that'd be messy. I gave the air a sniff every twenty seconds before it started to shift at all.  
"Shika?"  
"What?"  
"How does this smell to you?"  
"Troublesome," he sighed, getting up and coming over. "Sweet."  
"Perfect," I said. "Thanks."  
He made some kind of grunting noise that boys make and then sat back down.  
It was almost done, so close that I could practically taste it.  
The last ingredient was equisetum arvense. It kind of resembled corn on the cob, except the cob itself was brown instead of yellow and it was considerably richer in minerals.  
"You might want to move away," I said. "If this thing is going to explode on me, it'll be right now."  
He did so. When he had gotten a bit of distance I scooted forward, grabbing roughly a cup's worth of the spores and dropped them in, ducking down away as soon as they were in. The concoction bubbled and fizzed menacingly for a couple of seconds. I held my breath, waiting, not moving a muscle just in case.  
Then the pot seemed to calm down. I uncurled my arms from my body and shifted myself back in front of the pot with a hopeful grin.  
"Oh, please Kami," I murmured. I gave it a stir and turned off the heater so that it had a chance to cool. "You can come back Shika, it's not gonna blow up."  
I pulled off my gloves and tossed them aside, biting down on my thumb. A small prick of blood formed on the end of it and I slammed my hands down on the ground, Keiko appearing a second later in front of me.  
"Greetings Mistress!" she said cheerily. "What is it you need?"  
"I need you to test an antidote for me," I said.  
"I'd be glad to! This is for the same poison as before, correct?"  
"That's the one," I confirmed.  
I grabbed one of the vials and dipped it into the pot, pulling a small amount out and holding it out to her. She stuck her tongue in and got a small glob onto the tip of it. She contemplated it for a minute, cocking her head from side to side, deep in thought.  
Finally, she righted her head. "I believe this will work!"  
I gave a breathy laugh, grinning from ear to ear. "That's such a relief to hear," I said. "I'll double check with Toshiko, just to be sure, but thank you so much for all your help Keiko."  
"No problem Mistress, I am just happy to be of service!"  
She disappeared and in her place Toshiko appeared a second later.  
"Mistress," she purred. "How may I assist you?"  
"I've got an antidote for that poison I made a few weeks ago," I told her. "Keiko said she thinks that it might work, but I just want to double check with you."  
I held out the vial to Toshiko as well and she took a small taste of it, deliberating for a little bit longer before she dipped her head.  
"Yes, that appears to be adequate."  
"Awesome. Thank you so much, Toshiko."  
"Of course, Mistress."  
I let out a breath, glad to finally have that settled. Two weeks I'd spent worrying and working to have a solution, and now that it was over with I could finally relax.  
"Nice," Shika said. "Does this mean you won't be blowing up the shack back here for a bit?"  
"Hopefully," I said with a laugh. "I don't think I'm going to try and make my own stuff again for a little while."  
I gathered my stuff up from the ground and loaded it back into the hut, quickly pouring the antidote into a few vials and pocketing half of them. We walked back to his house and I stayed a little longer, sitting and watching him and Shikaku play shogi, something that was more interesting than it sounded, before I headed home for dinner. I ended up spending the rest of the night with mama and papa, reading my medical books while they watched TV. All in all, it was a good day.  
.-.-.  
The next five days went by in a flash. We ended up going on a mission. It was the typical genin D-rank mission where we had to hunt down and retrieve a stolen purse for a woman in the village. Of course, Naruto and Sasuke fought the entire way through, but we had been successful, returning the lost purse to the woman within a couple of hours. Thank Kami it only took that long otherwise I might have lost my mind. It was odd that Kakashi-sensei waited until only a couple of days before the exam to take us on another mission. Given how bad the boys were behaving I didn't exactly blame him, it just took me by surprise that day when I showed up to training only to find out that we were going on a mission.  
Registration day came. Naruto and I went there together, meeting up with Sasuke at the entrance.  
"You two are late," he drawled.  
"Tough shit," I simply said, strolling through the entrance. I wasn't really in the mood for his attitude.  
"Kasu wait up!"  
I paused for a second, allowing the other two to catch up before I pushed on. There was a clump of people standing in front of the room, including a few very familiar faces.  
Lee was already on the ground, Tenten beside him. The two men who were disguised as boys stood in front of the doors, easily batting away anybody who tried to get past them.  
"You think this is tough?" one of them asked. "Please, the chunin exams will make this look like a picnic."  
"Some of you aren't even going to come out of this alive. And some of you who do are going to be permanently ruined from it," the other said. "A chunin has to lead missions and be capable of taking care of their entire squad. Not just anybody can make it through these tests."  
"This isn't a joke."  
"Delicate little girls don't belong here," one scoffed.  
"Delicate little girls?" I asked, slipping through the people so I was standing in front.  
He looked to me, his smirk turning into a laugh. "Look, we've got two little princesses in the room! That's all you are, pipsqueak. Go home now and play with your dolls."  
"You're hilarious," I said in a hard tone, clearly unamused. "Now ditch the terrible genjutsu and move. We need to get to the third floor and your annoying asses are in the way."  
A few people murmured behind me in confusion.  
"What's she talking about?"  
"Third floor? We're on the third floor."  
"Who does she think she is?"  
The two shared a look, not changing their haughty expressions in the slightest. "Well, well," one said. "You noticed the genjutsu, huh?"  
Rather than give a straight answer I looked over my shoulder. "Uchiha, I'm sure you saw it just as soon as I did."  
"'Course I did, what do you take me for, an amateur?" he replied in his usual arrogant tone. "This is only the second floor."  
Just like that the sign above the door shifted from 301 to 201 and a collective gasp moved through the people behind us.  
"Looks like we have a couple of kid geniuses," one said. "Since you could handle that, what do you think of this?"  
He raised his leg to kick at me and I put up my arm to defend against it, not bothering to do anything else because I already knew what was going to happen. In a flash Lee was standing in front of me, holding the guy's leg in place.  
"Huh?" the guy asked.  
"Enough, no need to resort to fighting," Lee said.  
The guy gave him an annoyed look, dropping his leg and moving away.  
I lowered my arms and stood straight again. Sasuke and Naruto had both tensed up behind me, waiting to for the fight to break out.  
Neji and Tenten moved forward, neither looking pleased. "What are you doing? We were going to keep a low profile," Neji said, his hands clenched at his sides.  
I blinked at them, my eyes going between the three.  
Lee had his gaze locked on me in a way that had me shifting away nervously. Oh, no. Please no. Not this.  
Tenten just shook her head. "It's over, just forget about it."  
Lee took a couple of steps forward, standing in front of me with a solemn expression. "I am Rock Lee. What is your name?"  
"Kasumi Himura," I answered warily, my eyes narrowed.  
His face shifted into a grin, his cheeks tinged pink with a blush. "Will you be my girlfriend? I swear that no matter what I will protect you with my life!"  
"I… no… not a chance," I managed. Man, of all the things that happened to Sakura that were getting projected onto me, why did this one have to be included?  
The boy shriveled on the spot, looking like he had expected me to say yes. "What? Why not?"  
"I just met you!" I squeaked. To my horror, I actually felt myself begin to blush.  
Naruto dissolved into laughter and even Sasuke was getting horribly sick amusement out of my discomfort. I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest in annoyance.  
Neji and Tenten walked over, clearly embarrassed by their teammate.  
"Hey, you, what's your name?" Neji asked, the question directed towards Sasuke.  
Naruto perked up until he realized that Neji wasn't talking to him. He let out a grumble and I patted him on the back sympathetically.  
"Isn't it supposed to be common courtesy to give your own name first?" the boy inquired, hands in his pockets and his tone expressing his boredom.  
Rather than answering, Neji posed another question back at him. "You're all rookies, aren't you? How old are you?"  
The plural seemed to mean he was referring to all of us. I turned to look at him, noticing that this time he seemed to be interested in me as well.  
"None of your business," Sasuke said before I could open my mouth.  
"What's that?"  
Tenten giggled to herself. "How cute."  
The tension between the two boys was too high for my liking. No need for a fight to break out now, not when we were bound to have a circus on the next floor anyways.  
I rolled my eyes. "Alright, enough of this. Let's get going - we have places to be that aren't here squabbling."  
The boys turned and followed me, Sasuke waiting a second longer than Naruto. We walked up the stairs in silence. Naruto was too busy pouting to talk and Sasuke was either brewing over me taking away his chance in the spotlight or Neji trying to get information off of him.  
We walked into the room where I knew Lee was going to be and I had to admit, it was an impressive sight. A massive room with glistening wooden floors, large pillars lining the entrance way, and a balcony along the top row. A balcony that I knew wasn't going to be empty when we got up there. We moved forward and just as I thought, I could feel Lee's chakra signature waiting for us.  
"Hey, you with the attitude," Lee said from above. "Hold on."  
Both the boys turned to look and I only gave a sigh.  
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked.  
"Fight me, right here, right now."  
"Here and now, huh?"  
"That is correct," Lee said. He vaulted over the balcony and down onto the floor, staring determinedly at Sasuke. "I am Rock Lee. You said it was courtesy for the challenger to give his name first, so there, Sasuke Uchiha."  
"So you know who I am," he said, his expression giving way to his surprise.  
Lee struck his taijutsu pose and said, "I challenge you! All I hear is how great the Uchiha clan is and I wish to see for myself whether or not they are speaking the truth!"  
"Is that so?"  
I breathed a sigh of relief, figuring that I got lucky with him not noticing me.  
Then, he turned.  
His eyes locked on mine.  
And a blush rose onto his cheeks.  
"Oh, Kasumi," he said. "I love you."  
"Oh Kami please no," I cried. "Not like this."  
"You are an angel sent from heaven!"  
Sasuke seemed to ignore this little display entirely, instead only saying, "You've heard of the Uchiha clan and you're still going to challenge me? You're more of an idiot than you look. If you want to know about my clan then I'll just teach you the hard way."  
Lee struck his taijutsu stance again, my image entirely forgotten from his mind. Good.  
"Wait a second," Naruto said, eyes set narrowly. "I want him first."  
"Go for it," Sasuke said.  
I grabbed a handful of his jacket, yanking him on his ass. "No."  
"What? Kasu, why not?"  
"He's better than you are."  
"No way!"  
"Ha! She recognizes my superiority," Lee cheered.  
"Shut up bushy-brow," I snapped.  
"Just look at him!" Naruto said. "He's a complete loser!"  
"You wouldn't look at me and think I could kick your ass, would you?" I asked. "Trust me, as somebody who specializes in taijutsu, I can tell when somebody knows what they're doing, and he knows what he's doing."  
"Even she believes in my skill," Lee said. "Out of all the leaf genin, I am on top. Fight me Sasuke, I will prove it to you, I know I will."  
"Fine, I'll fight you."  
"Sasuke," I said, a tight warning in my voice.  
"Relax. I can handle him."  
"Fuck, at least be careful and keep it quick if you have to fight him. We need to register by 3pm."  
The two squared off. It was kind of odd to watch, Sasuke getting his ass handed to him by a guy in spandex. Every guard Sasuke put up Lee got through. Every hit Sasuke tried for Lee simply dodged out of without even trying. Not recognizing this as pure taijutsu skills Sasuke attempted to catch him with the Sharingan but simply wasn't fast enough. It was a cold lesson for Sasuke to learn now first hand - seeing a move coming with his Sharingan didn't mean he was going to be able to react in time. He could see whatever he wanted, but he was too slow, incapable of keeping up with Lee.  
"There are two kinds of ninja," Lee said. "Those like you who are born with talent and therefore have nothing to work for, and those who train on a daily basis just to keep up with the rest of you!"  
Lee charged at him, knocking him into the air and appearing behind him before Sasuke could even react. The boy's eyes widened, unable to stop whatever it was that Lee had in store for him. The bandages on Lee's arms slid off and just as he was about to perform the attack a turtle walked in from behind.  
"Alright, that's enough Lee!" the turtle shouted.  
In an instant Lee stopped, flipping down gracefully and landing in front of the turtle, bent down on his knees with his hands placed in front of him.  
I slipped forward and caught Sasuke before he could slam back on the ground. I set him down and he sat up, watching Lee through narrowed eyes. My eye went to the clock. We were starting to cut it close here. Not really interested, I tuned out the outlandish display between Lee and the turtle, taking a closer look at Sasuke.  
"Any injuries?" I asked.  
He looked at me with an annoyed look. "You think I'd get any injuries from fighting that guy?"  
"Cut out the arrogance, asshole, he had you beat."  
"I'm not injured," he said coldly.  
I rolled my eyes. "See? Was that so hard?"  
By the time I looked back up, Guy was dancing atop the turtle's shell, making poses that would give anybody pause if they knew he was a jonin rank shinobi. I couldn't put words to the feeling of seeing somebody with a chakra signature nearly, if not as powerful, as Kakashi-sensei, running around in outlandish green spandex and acting like this. If I were to try, though, I'd say it were somewhere along the lines of seeing a baboon carrying around the BFG.  
"They… they look exactly the same," Naruto said in horror. "Same haircut, same clothes, but his sensei has bushier eyebrows!"  
Lee whipped around. "Are you making fun of Guy sensei? He is one of the greatest men in the world how dare you!"  
"Excuse me for not noticing his greatness when he's too busy crawling out from under a turtle!" Naruto shot back.  
"Give it a rest," I called.  
"Lee, that is enough!" Guy said at the same time. Lee turned back to face him and the man pulled back his fist, giving a fierce cry as he slammed it into the boy's cheek. "You fool!"  
"This is an absolute fucking circus," I said.  
I watched in dismay as the two embraced, tears streaming down their face, in a way that I had never seen two people act in either of my two lives. It made my brain hurt.  
"Alright that's enough," I said. "Before this gets worse, let's just get back to doing what we were here to do in the first place: sign up for our chunin exam."  
Guy looked at me and scratched his head. "Ah yes, those. I forgot. For disrupting the exams… a more severe punishment is in order. 500 laps!"  
Lee saluted the man and say, "Yes, sensei!"  
I stood up, hauling Sasuke to his feet. I began to walk away, turning back when I realized Naruto was still too engrossed in their drama to pay attention so I could grab him by his collar and drag him along with me.  
"Wait just a second!" Guy called. "Tell me, you are Kakashi's students, are you not?"  
"Oh here it goes," I muttered.  
"How is he doing?"  
"Why do you care?" Naruto asked.  
"Well you see, he and I are rivals after all!"  
"Oh, fuck this," I said. "I'm leaving, you two can follow along when you're done here."  
"You must be Kasumi," the man said as I was leaving. "You know, your sensei called in a favor from me in return for aid in your training."  
I froze, looking at the man in abject horror. "What?"  
If Kakashi-sensei signed me up to work with this man… I didn't even want to think further on it. He wouldn't do that to me. I had never done anything to him to deserve a punishment like this.  
"My student, Tenten, specializes in working with weaponry. He said that you required training in this field and as such, used a favor with me to gain assistance in this matter!"  
I heaved a massive sigh of relief. Tenten I could work with. It made sense, then, why he was so adamant about me only doing this if I was sure I was going to stick with it. Having to call in a favor from a nut job like this wasn't something you did lightly and I really owed him one for that.  
"Oh."  
"Does that mean I will get the chance to train with you, my angel?" Lee asked, his expression one of hope.  
I looked between the two before I shook my head and walked away. Sure, there were important exchanges that needed to happen, and I was sure they'd still happen just fine with or without me. That trainwreck had nothing to do with Sakura and there was no way in hell I was going to let myself get caught any further in it than I already had.  
I continued forward down the hallway to where Kakashi-sensei was leaning against the door patiently. The man was looked up as I walked through, noting the complete lack of the rest of my team.  
"Aren't you missing something?"  
"I left them behind," I told him. "They're enjoying quality time with your rival and his student."  
"You met Might Guy his student? And you dumped your teammates with them? That's cruel even for you," he said.  
I snorted. "Those two are a freak show that I don't want to be a part of."  
"They are quite the interesting pair."  
"That's putting it lightly," I said.  
"I wouldn't underestimate his student, though, if I were you," Kakashi-sensei warned.  
"Trust me I won't. He already kicked Sasuke's ass into oblivion."  
"Sasuke got in a fight?"  
"Yeah, but you didn't hear it from me," I said. Wanting to change the subject I kept talking before he had the chance to think too much on that. "Before I left them, Guy mentioned one thing interesting to me."  
"What's that kid?"  
"He told me you called in a favor so I could train with one of his students?"  
"I did and you owe me."  
"I figured. What'd he make you do?"  
The man made a pained expression. "I had to have a race with him across Konoha."  
I barked a laugh, the image of Kakashi-sensei and Might Guy springing across the rooftops lifting my spirits exponentially. "Oh Kami, did you win?"  
"I don't want to talk about it."  
"Yikes."  
"That's one word for it."  
"Does that mean you lost?"  
"I said I'm not talking about it."  
"You lost to that green weirdo, didn't you?"  
He didn't reply, simply lifting his book back up and proceeding to ignore me. That was a clear answer to me.  
The boys walked up the stairs, both looking exponentially more determined than they had just a few minutes ago, standing surprisingly close together without looking like they wanted to kill each other.  
"Well, looks like the gang's back together," Kakashi-sensei said. "Are you all ready?"  
We chorused an answer.  
"Good," he responded. "You're going to need to be ready for what's ahead of you. There's a long road between now and the end of the chunin exams, but I'm confident in your abilities to handle what's about to be thrown at you. I'm proud of how far you three have come, and I couldn't ask for a better team. Good luck."  
"Thanks sensei, we won't let you down!" Naruto cheered.  
Sasuke nodded.  
"We'll make you proud too, old man," I said.  
He moved aside, letting us go in past him with a nod of his head. Even before he opened the doors I could feel the sea of chakra signatures flooding the room ahead of us.  
"What is this?" Naruto muttered.  
There were at least fifty other people in the room, ranging in ages from only a couple years older than us to at least ten. I saw more a multitude of different hitae-ate's scattered around, though I could at least recognize all of them. A few people turned when we walked in but most were too busy talking amongst themselves to give a couple of kids any notice.  
Off to my left I felt a few familiar signatures approaching. I turned, laughing at the absolute disgust on Sasuke's face as Ino hopped on his back, giggling.  
"Oh, Sasuke! I haven't seen you in a few days! You can't even begin to imagine how much I was hoping you'd be taking these too, I've missed those brooding good looks of yours!" she said in her usual bubbly tone.  
"Hi Ino," I said to her.  
"Kasumi, hey!" she returned, still clinging onto the poor boy's back.  
"You saw him like a week ago," Shika said to her, not terribly bothered by her behaviour.  
"Young love, just let it blossom," I said. He rolled his eyes and I scooted over to where Cho was, stealing a handful of the chips he was munching on.  
Fed up with having her on there Sasuke tipped his shoulders, dumping Ino off and righting himself with a satisfied expression. The girl fell on the ground with a thud, some of her hair slipping out of her ponytail from the force of the impact.  
Through the crowd I felt a few more familiar signatures wading towards us. I looked over, nodding my head in greeting to the other three rookies. I'd actually gotten on pretty well with most of the rookies in the later years of the academy. Shino was quiet enough that it was almost impossible not to get along with him from the sheer fact that he couldn't be bothered to fight with anybody. Hinata was too sweet to fight with; I could probably punch her in the face and she'd apologize to me, not that I would. Kiba could be obnoxious but after growing up with Naruto as one of my best friends that was something I could handle pretty easily.  
"Well, looks like we're all back together," Kiba said.  
Hinata peeked out from behind his shoulders, eyes only for a certain blonde. "H-hi Naruto!"  
"Hey."  
I swear, if I was next to him I'd elbow him in the ribs. The clueless boy.  
"You guys too, huh?" Shika asked. "Man, everybody's here for this stupid thing."  
"Yep, all nine rookies here again. It'll be fun - at least, for those of us who can make the cut," Kiba said. "Right Sasuke?"  
"I'd watch it Kiba, don't wanna get too overconfident," Sasuke replied.  
"Just wait! We're gonna blow you guys away, we've been training like crazy."  
"What do you think we've been doing, sitting on our asses all day?" Naruto retorted.  
"Don't m-mind Kiba!" Hinata said quickly. "I'm sure h-he didn't me-mean a-anything b-by it!"  
"Huh?" This time I did move all the way back to Naruto so I could give him a sharp elbow in the ribs. "Hey Kasu, what's that for?"  
"Being an idiot," I muttered.  
Then, I felt what I could only assume was the signature of Kabuto. What I wouldn't give to wring his neck right here and now. There was no way that I would ever be capable of doing it, skill wise, but hey - a girl could dream. I turned my head, shifting my gaze over to where I knew he was approaching from with narrow eyes. He held my stare, giving me a 'cheery' smile that I didn't bother to return.  
"Hey, you guys, you might want to keep it down," he said. "You're the rookies, yeah? Fresh out of the Academy and all that. If I were you, I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourself. You're not on a class field trip."  
"Did anybody ask you for your opinion?" Ino responded. "Who even are you?"  
"I'm Kabuto Yakushi," he said. "Really, look around - you've made quite the impression."  
He was right. We were the loudest in the room, a bunch of kids making a fuss in a room full of people who were just aching to find easy targets. I followed where he was facing and saw the Amegakure shinobi.  
"See those guys? They're from the Rain village, very touchy," he said. "Everybody is. This exam makes everybody tense and you're best off not rubbing them the wrong way. Not that you can even help it. You don't know how any of this works, you're just a bunch of rookies. You actually kind of remind me of myself back when I was still a rookie too."  
"I'm going to take that as meaning you've taken the exam before," I said.  
"That's right," he said. "This is my seventh time taking it."  
"Seriously?" Shika asked, a smirk on his face.  
"They're held twice a year so this is my fourth year taking them."  
"Whoa, you're like an expert! Does that mean you can give us a bunch of inside tips?" Naruto asked.  
"Do you really want tips from somebody who's taken it seven times and never passed?" Shika threw back at the blonde boy.  
"Hey, seventh time's the charm!" the man said.  
"The rumors must have been true about this exam, then," Shika sighed. "How troublesome."  
"Hang on, I think I can help you guys out a bit with a few of these," Kabuto said, pulling out a stack of cards from his pocket and fanning them out in front of his face. "These are my ninja info cards."  
"What does that mean?" Sasuke asked.  
"Cards that I've compiled over the four years I've been taking the exams. There's over two hundred of them, so at least all of my attempts haven't been a total waste of time." He grabbed one off the top and turned it over for us to see.  
"Hey that's blank!" Naruto cried.  
"Only to the naked eye," he said. "Add a little bit of chakra and all of a sudden this blank card becomes a map of the geographical distribution of all the candidates taking the exam this year."  
"Look at that," Kiba murmured.  
"Do you know why they have all these villages from around the nation come together for a test like this?" he asked rhetorically.  
Unable to help myself, I said, "They claim it's just to keep good relations, but it's more to do with regulating how many shinobi of high rank each village has to maintain the balance of power."  
He looked at me curiously. "How'd you know?"  
I just shrugged. "I read a lot."  
"Balance of power, yeah, I knew that too," Naruto said.  
Kabuto put his hand over the card again and the map disappeared. "If one village has too many shinobi, it can end up more powerful than its neighbors, tempting it to attack rather than maintain their relations." He looked up at me. "But I'm guessing you already knew that, too, right?"  
Something in his tone set me on edge. I shifted back a little, giving a simple, "Yeah."  
Sasuke stepped forward, eyes set on Kabuto. "Do those cards have anything useful about the other candidates?"  
"They might," Kabuto said. "Have somebody special in mind?"  
"I might," the boy replied.  
Kabuto picked up his deck and tapped it on the ground. "I can't promise that my information is perfect or complete but there is a chance I'll be able to tell you what you want to know - I've got something on just about everyone. You guys included of course." He grinned up at Sasuke. "So who is it?"  
"Gaara of the Desert and Rock Lee of the Leaf Village."  
"You even know their names, that makes this a very easy task indeed," he said. He swiped his hand over the top of the deck and held two cards up in front of his face.  
"Show me."  
Kabuto did Lee first, adding a bit of chakra to the card and explaining all of the information on it to Sasuke. He went over Gaara's information as well, doing a damn good job of setting our entire group on edge as he went. I held my tongue, maintaining a tight lipped frown the entire time that he spoke.  
"Of all the years, this is definitely one of the toughest crowds I've ever seen," he said. "We've really got our work cut out for us."  
Kabuto smiled at us, peering out from behind his glasses. I had to give him credit, he was a pretty decent actor, even able to keep his chakra signature from giving away any of his intentions. Iruka could take a couple of lessons from this guy.  
Naruto went to open his mouth and I quickly clamped a hand over his mouth, shooting him a harsh look. "No."  
He said something from behind my hand but I ignored it.  
"Awh, c'mon," Kabuto said. "Let the kid have some fun."  
"He can have all the fun he wants when we're not in a room surrounded by high-strung professional killers."  
On instinct my attention shifted towards the crowd in front of us just in time to see the Team Dosu break through the back end of it. One of them flew through the air, hurling a couple of kunai at Kabuto. The man pushed himself back, sliding across the floor to get out of the way. Another popped in front of him and tossed a punch towards his head that Kabuto narrowly avoided at the last second. I saw it, though - the chakra leave his arm, lashing further and washing over Kabuto's body. There was a short pause, silence hanging in the air, before the lenses in his glasses shattered, clattering to the floor.  
"What?" Sasuke said. "He dodged that!"  
"He must not have dodged as well as it looked," Shika said.  
"No, he dodged the fist just fine. There was more to it than just a punch," I murmured. "You just couldn't see it."  
They all looked at me but I stared forward grimly, watching as Kabuto fell to his knees, retching. Naruto ran over to him, putting a hand on the man's shoulders. I was definitely not looking forward to coming face-to-face with those three in a fight.  
"Hey, Kabuto, you alright?"  
"Fine," he coughed.  
Dosu chuckled. "Heh, not such a tough guy afterall."  
"Make sure you include on your little cards that the Sound genin this year are all going to be chunin when this is over," Zauk said.  
An explosion sounded from the front of the class and a voiced shouted, "Alright you baby-faced degenerates, pipe down and listen up! Time to begin."  
The attention of the entire crowd shifted forward to the desk in the front, everything happening back here instantly forgotten. Kabuto got to his feet and the two came back over to where we were standing.  
"I'm Ibiki Morino," the scarred man said. "I'm the proctor for the first exam. From this moment, I'm your worst enemy. First, you candidates from the Village Hidden in the Sound!" And, just like that, everybody was looking back where we were. "Knock it off, who told you you could fight? If you want to fail before you even begin you're doing a damn good job of it."  
"Sorry, it's our first time," Dosu said. "We're a little jumpy."  
Ibiki smired. "I'll say this once so you better listen up. No combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor, and don't you even think of using fatal force because it is strictly prohibited. If you even think of messing with me you'll suffer immediately disqualification, am I clear?" He must have taken the silence as an answer because he kept going. "Good. The first part of the exam is about to begin, so bring up your forms. In exchange, you'll get a number, and that number determines where you'll sit for the upcoming written exam."  
"Written exam?" Naruto said.  
"It'll be fine," I said. "Don't worry about it."  
"Kasu come on you know how I do with those kind of things," he whined.  
"Trust me," I insisted. "It's going to be fine, you'll do just fine Naruto."  
.-.-.  
The process of getting all of the forms handed in and the numbers handed out took an annoying amount of time. What made it worse was Kabuto, standing with our little group, chatting away with everybody. I did my best to ignore him but the entire thing just grated on my nerves.  
Eventually we were all seated. I had gotten placed pretty far in the back with Naruto and Sasuke up closer to the front. They were both easily visible to me, which was good because I had something special up my sleeve just for this. It's not like it mattered whether or not the boys were able to answer the questions, but it was a good thing for me to have learned, something that could be useful down the road at some point.  
I debated for a while how I was going to handle this first test. If I really wanted to, I could just sit here for the entire hour and do nothing. Sasuke figured out everything about this test on his own using the Sharingan. Naruto had an entirely empty page, passing only on the bull-headed stubbornness he showed when it came to not backing down from a challenge. I could literally sleep the entire hour and then wake up in time to stay for the tenth question. They didn't disqualify people for not cheating, only for doing a shitty job of it.  
But… where was the fun in that?  
Besides, better safe than sorry on this sort of thing.  
They handed out the papers and Ibiki went through his whole spiel. I tuned it out, instead just glancing down at the test - none of the questions were really, terribly difficult. I mean, they were above genin level, that was obvious. The struggle people would have is comprehending exactly what it was the test was asking you to do. It was a good tactic. Make the questions sound as complicated as they could in hopes of dissuading us from even bothering to try and answer them but also allowing those who were smart enough to solve it themselves. For those who knew they had no hope of being able to pull it off themselves it forced them to look beyond the actual questions and figure out the true intent of the exam.  
This wasn't only a test of how smart you are, it was also a test of how sneaky you are.  
Within twenty minutes I'd answered all the questions in a way that at least looked convincing. Whether or not I got it right wasn't actually the point though considering they didn't even grade the sheets when they were done. I just had to make it look like I had gotten them right to the boys so that they'd feel confident in our scores and agree to take on the final question.  
I sat back a little, feigning boredom. I twiddled my pencil around some, played with my hair, stared up at the ceiling. The shinobi on the side seemed to take some notice of me but since I wasn't cheating there wasn't much for them there. With a small sigh I let my head fall down on the edge of my desk, my hair cascading down on either side to create a curtain for my hands, purposefully slowing my breathing to what was normal for somebody who was asleep. Perfect.  
My genjutsu may have left much to be desired but as long as neither of the boys fought it there'd be no problems in me being able to use it as a way to convey my answers. Hopefully Sasuke had figured out that he had to cheat by now. While most genjutsu required eye-contact between all involved parties, simple illusions and suggestions could be cast with only hand seals and the exact location of the target. Being able to sense the chakra signatures of the boys was the main thing that was going to make this little trick of mine a plausible option.  
The illusion was small and targeted on only a single person. The odds of anybody being able to detect that he was under illusion were scarce so long as he didn't have an adverse physical reaction when I showed it to him.  
The second I entered his mind Sasuke began to resist me feverently. I could sense his chakra signature stirring with agitation. Unable to relay any sort of complicated thoughts into his mind I simply repeated two words: Kasumi and cheat. It took a few seconds of those words flashing in his mind for him to make the connection and ease off, giving me the freedom to show him what I had wanted to.  
I imposed a shaky image of my completed test overtop of his, all of the answers he needed displayed in front of him. The boy wasted no time in covering my scratchy writing with his own, soon having a full page that would hopefully give him some sense of security. When I was sure he had gotten everything I pulled myself from his mind, forcing myself to keep my breathing steady at the sharp headache that was forming on the edge of my skull.  
This was why I hated genjutsu - it always gave me the worst backlash.  
Naruto was much more willing to let me into his head. Though the second I entered his head I found myself practically screaming the word quiet at him, praying that he'd simply act natural as soon as I entered his mind. His chakra signature seemed to be itching to explode, spiking all over the place and churning uneasily. I quickly began to relay Kasumi and cheat as well, tossing in the word quiet every few loops or so to keep reinforcing the idea. Thankfully that seemed to work and Naruto's signature mellowed out to its usual level of chaotic churning.  
Sweat was starting to bead on my brow. Genjutsu wasn't something I specialized in. These were little tricks I'd worked on specifically for this moment now, but it wasn't perfect. As I held the image in front of Naruto it began to flicker slightly. Naruto seemed to recognize that I was struggling to maintain it and he hurried the speed of his pencil. Having to fight the consciousness of the boys to maintain control of the genjutsu took far more chakra than I had thought it would, due to both my lack of skill and their sharp resistance. It wasn't to the point of nearing exhaustion but I definitely was using up a decent chunk of chakra.  
I had to pull away the image before Naruto could finish but that didn't matter. He had enough confidence to answer the question with a blank sheet anyways, I could see no reason for him to not answer this time around too.  
The kunai flying through the middle of the room marked the first failure. As they continued to call out numbers and kick people out of the room I finally lifted my head, blinking with faux bleariness. With nothing else to do but pretend I didn't have a monster headache I leant back in my chair, listening as one by one nearly half of the teams in the room were eliminated. I couldn't imagine what that was like, being struck out on the first part of the exam and having to wait an entire year.  
Eventually Ibiki raised his chin, calling out to the class, "Alright, listen up! Time for the tenth and final question." Everybody's attention shifted towards him. "But before I give you the question, you need to know the rest of the rules. They're unique to question ten. Firstly, each of you may decide that you do not wish to know the final question, it's up to you."  
"Wait, but what if we don't?" Temari called from the back of the room.  
"If you choose not to take the final question, regardless of how well you did otherwise, you will instantly fail the test, dragging your entire team down with you. However, if you accept the question, and answer wrong, you don't just fail - you won't be able to take the chunin exam ever again."  
"What? Man, that's no fair!" Kiba shouted. "Lots of people in here have taken the test before!"  
Ibiki just laughed. "I guess you're just unlucky to be taking the test while I'm proctoring it, aren't you?"  
A burst of chatter broke out amongst the gathered genin.  
It was odd that none of them seemed to even consider that the proctor, a seasoned shinobi, would simply lie to them.  
"Now then," Ibiki said. "The time has come. If you do not wish to take the tenth question, raise your hand."  
There was a long pause, everybody looking to see who the first one to chicken out would be. The guy beside Naruto was the first to raise his hand. They called out his number and he was led out of the room. Like that the floodgate broke and suddenly damn near half of the people in the room raised their hand and dropped out of the running just like that.  
I stared forward at Naruto, watching his hand twitch, waiting as he raised it as if to quit. Collectively the room seemed to stare at him. Part of me started to doubt myself here. Did I do the right thing, giving him some form of answers? Should I have just left the boys on their own? My answer came when Naruto then slammed his hand down again with enough force to shake the desk.  
"No, I won't do it!" he shouted. "I won't quit! None of you in here are going to scare me off not a chance! I'd rather be stuck as a genin for the rest of my life than chicken out now."  
The rest of the room seemed almost electrified by the outburst, nodding to themselves and steeling their resolve.  
I simply smirked to myself - good old Naruto.  
"This is a decision that can change your life," Ibiki said. "If you want to quit this is your last chance."  
"No way," Naruto said. "If I'm going to be Hokage one day I can't back down. That's my ninja way and I won't let it go now."  
Ibiki regarded all of us. "I admire your determination boy if nothing else," he said. "And for the rest of you, I only have one thing left to say: you've all passed the first exam!"  
The shock seemed to jump around the room. The wide array of expressions ranging from outrage to confusion had me letting out a little bit of a chuckle.  
When I realized nobody was going to say anything I bit the bullet and asked, "So what, that's it? What about the 10th question?"  
"That was the 10th question. Your decision to stay was the right answer to the 10th question."  
"So the entire rest of the nine questions were just a complete waste of time?"  
"No, not at all," Ibiki said. "The first nine questions had the purpose of testing your ability to gather strategic intelligence without getting yourself caught. Allow me to explain. You see, I wanted to test your team dynamic as well as your individual abilities. I scored you as a team so that you knew everything you did or failed to do effected your teammates directly. I needed to see how you handled that responsibility. Those who could not take that kind of pressure failed to gather information discreetly or would opt out and voluntarily remove their entire team from the test."  
"Must suck to be one of the people who chose to leave," somebody behind me muttered.  
Yeah, I could only imagine the regret those who opted out would feel after finding out.  
"You may have also noticed that the first nine questions of the test were of a very high difficulty," Ibiki continued. "In fact, they were too difficult for most genin to solve, something most of you quickly realized. This was a test designed to encourage cheating, nearly demanding it. Of course it would have done little good if you had nobody to cheat on, so in among the crowd are two chunin that I planted, both of whom already knew all the answers to the test."  
One of the guys near the front raised his hand, while the other was the guy directly to my left.  
"Ah, no fucking way," I said. "I spent all that time when you were literally right next to me?"  
The boy snickered. "Did you not even try to cheat?"  
"I didn't have to," I replied. "Just would have been nice to have gotten more of a nap in."  
Curiously the boy glanced over at my sheet, his eyes widening as he went along. "No way… you actually got the answers right?"  
"They weren't that hard, you just had to read them through properly."  
"You showed your work and everything."  
"Obviously I did. How else was I going to come up with the answers? Especially number 7, that question was a pain in the ass."  
Ibiki kept on going and I went back to ignoring the boy beside me.  
"Those who were caught failed. Better not to cheat than to cheat clumsily. Information is one of the most valuable assets that you can have in battle. How you gather intelligence can be what swings your team either towards failure or success." Ibiki slipped his forehead protector off, revealing the scarred remains of his head. "Of course, you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence from the enemy is not always accurate - disinformation can be far worse than no information at all. It can mean the death of your teammates or your entire village. This is why I forced you into a position like this, making you gather accurate intelligence. A shinobi who can't do this is not fit to be a chunin and that is why those who were not able to successfully cheat were weeded out."  
"Okay, I got all that," Temari said. "But I'm still not sure about this whole tenth question thing."  
Ibiki sighed. "The tenth question was the entire point of the exam. The goal was to test you as not just yourself, but your entire team. The final question forced you to either play it safe, taking not only yourself but your entire team out of the exam. Or you could try and answer, knowing that if you got it wrong you could never be chunin. There is no clear winner in the situation, and chunin face questions like this on a daily basis. If that's still not enough, let me pose to you a hypothetical question. You must steal a document from an enemy stronghold. You don't know how many ninja they have and how well armed those ninja are. You also have reason to believe that they are expecting you and that if you choose to continue, you are walking blindly into an ambush. Yet, this is your duty, and you do not get the choice to simply back out and walk away. You will face many missions in your day that seem like they're a suicide mission if you start to think about it, but you cannot do that. You have to only think about the goal and how you will achieve it through courage and discipline. Those who choose the safest path and who would rather save their own neck then take the risks necessary to guarantee the safety of their squad and village will never be chunin, not as long as I have anything to say about it. You all have passed, and I, as proctor of the first part of the exam, deem all of you as qualified to continue on with the rest of the chunin exams."  
I turned towards Naruto, expecting yet another outburst from him. Before he could do anything however the sound of grass breaking told me that Anko had beat him to the punch.  
She vaulted into the room with style, a massive brown banner flying behind her and dancing in the wind. "Heads up, boys and girls! I wouldn't go celebrating just yet if I were you. I'm Anko Mitarashi and I'll be your proctor for the second part of the exam! C'mon let's go, follow me it's time for the second test!"  
Ibiki sighed, peeking out from behind the woman. "You're early… again."  
She withered a little before her eyes seemed to finally take a proper scan of the room. "Wha… how many are there? Ibiki, you let all these pass? Your test must have been too easy you softie."  
"Did it not cross your mind that we could simply have a stronger crop of candidates this year?"  
"They sure don't look it," she scoffed. "Just you wait. By the time I'm done with 'em, less than half will remain."  
"Less than half of us left?"  
"What the hell kind of test is waiting for us?"  
"Alright maggots, quiet down," Anko said. "You've had it easy so far. The second test starts first thing tomorrow morning, I'll let your squad leaders know where you need to come and meet me. All of you are now dismissed."  
Everybody stood and milled out of the room.  
Well, that was one of the parts of the test down. The easy part. What lay ahead of us next was the hard part of the test, the part that I was dreading. Tonight, I'd go to sleep in my bed and then tomorrow I'd be thrown head first into the Forest of Death.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER NINETEEN  
.-.-.  
I had never been as glad to see a clear sky as when we were standing in front of the entrance to the Forest of Death. Given what was ahead of us, I needed every little thing on my side that I could get. I'd stopped by Naruto's apartment on the way to the training grounds, my entire body shaking with nerves. I'd barely even slept last night, the stress of knowing what was ahead of us sending nightmares chasing me through the night, but I was trying not to let myself get distracted and I'd packed soldier pills just in case.  
Naruto was either blissfully ignorant to my high-strung nerves or decided that the best way to combat them was by keeping me distracted because he managed to keep up a steady flow of chatter for the entire walk to the training ground. Sasuke met us up there, likely trying to limit his time with Naruto knowing that he was about to spend at least a few days with him. Kakashi-sensei had warned us ahead of time that the second part of the exam, in most cases, was where they'd put some kind of survival aspect to test how we'd do in enemy territory for extended periods of time.  
The sea of jittering chakra signatures standing at the gates was a bit unnerving, especially considering that was one chakra signature that I stood out from the others, a mass of chakra that simply screamed 'danger' despite how far away I was. After the first test, there'd been eighteen teams left - less than half of what started but still a lot more than typically made it to this part of the exam. The first part of the exam was meant to take out two-thirds to three-quarters of the teams. The second part was meant to whittle that number down to two-to-four teams for the tournament. The tournament in a chunin exam drew crowds, typically attended by the daimyo, shinobi, businessmen, politicians, and various other civilians alike. Most attendees wanted a short event. Anymore than a few matches and people would start to get bored.  
We got here pretty much exactly on time.  
Anko looked up at us. "Team 7, eh?"  
"That's us," I confirmed.  
"Kakashi's kids, why am I not surprised that you're cutting it close."  
Naruto went to say something that was probably stupid and I elbowed him in the stomach. Anko gave us a half-amused half-crazed smile and made her way back up to the front of the group where she hopped up onto the sign-in table, much to the annoyance of the chunin who was stationed at it.  
"That hurt Kasu," he muttered.  
"Tough. I'd rather you don't piss off our proctor, especially considering I'm not sure how sane she is."  
Being a student of Orochimaru would probably drive anybody a little off the deep end.  
"Alright maggots, quiet down!" she shouted at everybody. While she didn't demand respect with a subtle aura of power like Ibiki did, she definitely was able to still gather the attention with everybody gathered even if it took a bit of time. "This is training ground 44, better known as the Forest of Death."  
"Forest of Death, I'm not scared," Naruto scoffed, nearly shouting.  
That was one of the few times that I let one of his stupid comments slide.  
"Tough guy, eh?" Anko said with a impish grin.  
A kunai whizzed past his head, skimming the side of his cheek without actually slicing very deep. Crazy or not, she had wicked aim. Naruto froze like a deer in headlights. Anko sauntered over, dragging a finger across the boy's cheek and getting a little blood on her fingers before raising them to her lips.  
There were a few whispered variations of 'what the fuck' passing through the crowd.  
"Are you sure you're not scared? Not even a little?" she whispered, leaning closer to his ear. "Because I'll be the first to tell you: it's the guys like you who leave the bloodiest messes on the forest floor come the end of the test."  
Just like with her aim, I had to give credit where credit was due - Anko sure as hell knew how to mix batshit insanity with danger in a way that sent chills rolling through the assembled crowd. I for one took a bit of a step back.  
From behind her, a Grass-nin that sent red-flags flying all over my radar approached. Not only physically, a face that I recognized to be the shinobi Orochimaru killed and was impersonating, but the signature too was a dead giveaway. It seemed suppressed so as not to alert anybody else who was kicking around. The edges of it were subdued, as if being cut off before they could stretch to their full potential, yet nothing could mask the distinct level of power that was swirling in its depths, darkness coating its every writhing movement.  
Whether because she was taken by surprise or she was getting some kind of odd senses off the shinobi Anko instantly had another kunai raised. The 'Grass-nin' held her other kunai in its tongue, another dead giveaway that he was indeed Orochimaru. I wasn't sure what to chalk such blatant use of his bloodlimit as given it wasn't exactly a common thing to come across.  
"I was only returning your kunai to you," he said.  
Anko gave him a tight smile. "Why, thank you, Grass-nin. However I'd really only recommend you stay this close behind me if you wish to reach a premature end."  
"Apologies," he said. "It's just… the sight of blood and your blade slicing through my hair… it got me a little excited. No harm was meant by it."  
"Likewise," Anko said, her eyes following his retreating back with a measured expression. She turned and went back to where she came from, saying over her back, "Looks like everybody here today is a bit quick tempered. Must be something in the air. This is going to be fun."  
Naruto looked between our proctor and the 'Grass-nin' with his palm covering his cheek. Sasuke hadn't moved an inch during the entire encounter, his shoulders tight. I exchanged an uneasy glance with him before moving all of my attention back up front to where Anko was.  
"Before we start, I do have something to give you all," she said, picking up a stack of papers from the table she'd been standing on. "It's just a standard consent form. You have to read it and sign it otherwise you aren't permitted to take on this part of the exam."  
"What's on it?" somebody called.  
"Not everybody's going to live through this, so you gotta sign this agreeing that I warned you otherwise it'd be my responsibility," she responded with a cheery laugh. She handed off the forms to those in the very front of the line to start them getting distributed among the crowd. "This test is designed to tax every one of your survival skills. First, here's what the terrain is going to be: the training ground has 44 locked entrance gates; there are rivers and a forest inside; in the center is the tower, where you're going to head at the end of the test, located 10km from each of the gates."  
I let out a low whistle. That was 20km across, giving the entire training area over 300 square kilometres. That was massive. Shika, who was standing nearby, gave a bit of an agreeing nod, apparently having done the same math in his head.  
"This is the confined area where you'll be undergoing the survival test. The test consists of free-for-all battle in hopes of getting your hands on these scrolls," she said, holding up one of each. I gave a look at them, something catching my eye about them… curiously I opened up my senses, a smirk spreading over my face when I saw it. Whether it was the seals or just residual chakra left over from their production, the two scrolls gave off two very distinct chakra signatures. I let my senses open a bit further to where the rest of the scrolls were sitting and as I suspected only sensed the same two signatures. Everything gave off chakra, regardless of whether or not I had refined enough senses to feel them out - seals were included in this.  
I had already accepted that, at one point or another, Orochimaru was going to find us, and he was going to mark Sasuke. He was an S-rank missing nin who had come here with a purpose and there was no way in hell a couple of genin were going to get in his way. The extra few months we'd had in preparation for this moment wouldn't help us any. Telling somebody now wasn't really an option either. Exposing him now left the massive question mark of how he'd react. Sure, he might just mark Sasuke and flee, not returning again until the start of the invasion. More likely though he'd decide to just massacre everybody in the area to remove any witnesses and then mark Sasuke. No matter what happened there was no chance of him leaving this village without leaving his curse mark on my the Uchiha.  
My hope was that if we were able to ambush another team early on and get our matching scroll, we could at least leave directly after the attack rather than having to stop and wait for it. With this I could keep track of who got what as they went in so we'd be able to plan out who to ambush before we even stepped a foot on the training grounds.  
Zoning back in, I realized she had finished speaking and teams were starting to mill around. Both the boys were staring at me expectantly. Off to the side, they'd set up the station where they were going to be handing out the scrolls, a booth that was covered by a curtain to keep people from peeking in and seeing who was getting what. I motioned for them to follow and I went a ways from where the rest of the genin were gathered so I was sure we weren't going to be overheard.  
"Okay, I have a plan," I said. "When she was talking I noticed that the Heaven and the Earth scrolls give off different signatures."  
Sasuke gave me a look of disbelief. "What are you talking about, it's just paper."  
"It's faint, I think there's something on the scrolls giving off chakra, but there's definitely something there," I said. "Trust me. It's not like we have anything else to go by."  
"I trust you," Naruto said with a firm nod.  
"I think we should at least have something else to fall back on," Sasuke said.  
"Oh yeah, then what, asshole?"  
"I don't know yet, dobe! I'm just saying especially considering she said it's faint, it's best not to only have one thing to go by."  
"That's still not an idea."  
"I don't have to have something else ready to give input."  
"Enough," I said, my voice as hard and sharp as a knife. They both looked to me in surprise - sure, I could have a bit of a temper sometimes and I had taken charge during combat to bark orders at them, but this wasn't a tone I'd ever used on either of them before. In fact, it wasn't a tone I think I'd ever used before, end of story. "Look. I know you two haven't been getting along as well lately. I don't know what made it so much worse between the two of you, but that is not going to fly once we step through that gate. This is serious shit. If we don't work together, we can die. You two don't have to like each other and you can go right back to arguing once we're out. While we're in that forest, though, you have to just suck it up and get along. Please."  
There wasn't just anger or frustration in my tone. My voice didn't shake because they'd agitated me beyond belief. Underneath my words there was the terror that had me unconsciously tightening my muscles, that had my hands trembling, that had my lips pursed together in a tight line. It seeped through in a way that seemed to finally get both of them to understand that this wasn't just a game.  
They exchanged a glance before nodding to each other.  
"Okay."  
"I got it, Kasu."  
I let out a breath. If anything, I could at least know that the two of them weren't going to be pushing at each other for the entire three or so days we were stuck in there. "Normally, Sasuke, I'd completely agree with you," I admitted. "I don't like that we're going to be relying entirely on my ability to tell between the two, but I honestly don't have anything else we can go by here."  
"I guess for now at least, that's all we need," he said, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands knit together. "At the very least, if we're fighting you'll be able to pick out who has the scroll so we can target them."  
"Oh, that reminds me," I murmured, reaching back into my pack and pulling out a pack of headsets. They were designed for mission use, small enough that they were hard to pick out unless you already knew they were there. "Take one of these. I made sure to pick up a set. They've also got this button here that you can put somewhere if you need to activate it without somebody seeing."  
"Do you have poisons on you?" Naruto asked, looking far more serious than I'd seen him in a while.  
I nodded. "One of them happens to be lethal enough that if either of you get even a whiff of it I'll need to know so I can administer an antidote."  
Since I couldn't sleep I'd been messing around last night and discovered that liquid poisons could actually work out in explosive tags. The heat of the explosion vaporized the poison and it was dispersed in the smoke, though how that affected the potency I had no idea. All I knew was that since I had figured out the antidote I needed, I'd put the poison I made while we were in the Land of Waves into an explosive tag and I'd brought it with me, just in case. I was hoping to scrape through this without killing anybody, but if we got into a sticky situation I knew there was a chance I might have to. It all depended on who we chose to attack.  
"Got it," Sasuke said, discreetly pushing the earbud into place. Naruto and I both did the same and we synced up the stations of it.  
They started calling teams over soon after. I opened up my senses and watched as the first team, one of the others from Konoha, slipped into the booth. They emerged a few seconds after. "Heaven," I murmured. "On the girl… I think in her left thigh pocket."  
Sasuke had grabbed a twig and was writing my assessments down as we went, taking note even though I was going to be able to remember anyways. I just let him do it because it seemed to be calming his nerves some. After ten teams we were called up to turn in our forms and get our scroll.  
The chunin behind the desk appraised us with a bit of a condescending smirk on his face. He took our forms and handed our Heaven scroll to Sasuke who immediately handed it back to me.  
"Why me?"  
"You're the best of us at close combat, which is what somebody's going to have to do if they want to get it off us," he said. "And you also look like the weakest of the team so any enemies are going to assume that Naruto or I have it."  
I blinked at him. That was actually really smart. I took it from his hand and slipped it into one of the many pockets in my jacket, zipping it shut and doing my best to flatten it out. It wasn't too big, meaning the bulge it left would be hard to see from afar, especially if they weren't looking for it on me. Anybody up close would at least suspect what it was, though.  
We walked out, all eyes of the leftover genin teams watching us with keen eyes. We were instructed to pick one of the empty gates to leave from. I kept my senses open, waiting to pick out the signature of an Earth scroll. When we walked past Team Kegon, the only team from Takigakure to make it past the first test, I nudged the boys lightly, not wanting to say anything that might get their attention. Since the gates were actually a fair distance apart we could go to the very next one without making it painfully obvious.  
The Sound team who was going to ambush us later also had an Earth scroll, but the odds were we'd have an easier time taking the one from Takigakure. I was hoping that if we were fast enough we could outrun the Sound team's ambush - if being the key word there. It was pretty unlikely, given that Naruto was going to have his Kyuubi chakra sealed, Sasuke was going to be out of it from having the curse seal put on him, and I was bound to get some kind of injury at some point during the engagement.  
I had to at least hope though.  
After that, we just had to wait it out. It was another hour before they finally opened up the gates and all at once the teams dashed in to get some distance. We, however, didn't try for distance. Since it was the only team from Takigakure, I knew nothing about them besides what I could assume. We took to the trees, flying through the massive branches and discussing as we went.  
"They're from the Village Hidden by a Waterfall, so they're probably going to be using mostly water releases," I said. "It's definitely best if we ambush them before they have a chance to get to any kind of water source."  
"They'll have brought water of their own," Sasuke grunted. He was going to be at a disadvantage given that he relied so heavily on fire release.  
"Yeah, but you can only carry so much water with you at once," I countered. "If we can try and bait them into using up all of their water without letting them get too much damage off we can get them cornered and hopefully get their scroll."  
"Yeah! We'll just beat 'em into a pulp," Naruto whooped.  
"Quiet Naruto! We're trying to sneak up on them," I reminded him.  
He blushed. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.  
"Do you feel then anywhere near us?" Sasuke asked.  
I opened up my senses. I was starting to become really glad that I'd started to work on how far I can sense people. It'd only been three weeks, so the improvement wasn't massive, but I could definitely notice it, making it that much easier for me to pick out the group of three signatures moving north-east a hundred yards to our left with what I knew to be an Earth scroll. I relayed the information to them.  
We followed them as they ran for about ten minutes before they decided to break and start putting together a plan. I opened my senses, searching for the Earth scroll. I spotted it on the tallest of the boys who had managed to hide it in something around his neck. The boys followed me back a bit so we were out of earshot.  
"It's on the tall one," I murmured. "Somewhere in the area of his neck, I think he probably has it stashed somewhere in his scarf."  
"Should we just do a hit and run?" Sasuke asked.  
"That's not a bad idea, actually." I ran a hand through my hair. If we really wanted, we could fight them full on, but there was no point if we could pull off a successful ambush here - it'd save chakra, time, and potential injuries.  
"No! If we're going to take it, we should beat them fair and square," Naruto protested.  
"We're safer doing a hit and run," I said to Naruto. "Besides, in an exam like this fair doesn't mean jack shit."  
He didn't look happy about it but he conceded because we were right. They'd probably still fight back, maybe even chase us to try and retrieve the scroll, I'd just have to hope that we were faster. None of them looked like the fast and agile type though I of all people shouldn't be judging the fighting style of others based on their appearances.  
"What's the plan?"  
I looked back down to them nervously, knowing we had to hurry up and get this settled before they started moving again. "I'll smoke them out. I've got some poison tags that can scatter them and put them a bit off their guard," I said, rummaging through my belt. "If you two distract them I can use my bloodlimit and sneak up on the one with the scroll."  
"They'll be looking for you," Sasuke pointed out.  
"Hey! I have an idea!" Naruto said excitedly. We both looked to him. "What if I make a shadow clone that looks like Kasu. That way they won't even think to be paying attention to what's going on around them."  
I grinned. "That's an awesome idea."  
"Yeah, not bad dobe."  
"Don't call me that asshole!"  
I gave them a look and they both shut up pretty quick.  
We split up, the boys going to one end of the group and me going to the other. I did a few quick calculations, wanting to land the tag right in the middle of where they were huddled up, not fully trusting my arm to make the shot. I'd have to be fast. I slipped up my mask, both boys waiting for my word.  
"Ready?" I whispered.  
"Affirmative."  
"You bet Kasu!"  
"Yeah!"  
It was a bit unnerving to hear somebody else use my voice, but I tried to not think about it, shaking the thought out of my head.  
"Tag deployment in 3, 2, 1…"  
I flung the tag and it landed right where I was hoping, exploding between the three of them and throwing up dirt and other projectiles along with the sleeping poison. The beauty of non-lethal poison tags is that most of them were also colourless leaving anybody on the receiving end none-the-wiser.  
The three of them jumped away, coughing and looking around in confusion.  
"What the hell?" one of them cried.  
"Where are you? Show yourself!" the girl ordered, hands clenched at her side.  
On cue the boys and the clone dropped down in front of them. I crept around, spotting the one with the scroll a bit off to the back right of their little group, in the perfect position for me to sneak up and take him off guard. With Sasuke, Naruto, and the clone, the Takigakure team had turned their backs to me entirely, making my job that much easier.  
"Look who it is, the little brats," one of the boys said. "Should have known, using a stupid explosive tag like that. Too big of babies to actually fight us one on one."  
I rolled my eyes. 'Stupid explosive tag' my ass.  
The girl rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck. "If they want a fight, Shiro, let them have it. We can beat them."  
I ran through the hand seals and whispered, "Flawless Stealth."  
Kakashi-sensei suggested naming it because that was also known to help focus your chakra and make an ability a bit less chakra intensive. Even with a made-up name it definitely helped. In an emergency situation or during the heat of battle I'd likely forgo all of these steps, but in a situation like now I was fine to take a little bit of extra time in exchange for extra chakra.  
I dropped soundlessly from the trees and made my way towards the boy.  
"You got it Aimi," Shiro said. He gave a backward glance to the boy with the scroll, his eyes flickering from his scarf to his face, his eyes moving past me completely. "You good Hiro?"  
"Good," the boy confirmed.  
The closer I got the more clear the location of the scroll became. I had no idea whether the giant scarf was a fashion thing or what but he seemed to have wound it up in there pretty well. Both boys took their taijutsu positions and I could see my boys were starting to get a little nervous. We had planned for a fight but it'd be considerably more difficult for me to try to grab this thing off him without him noticing during a fight, especially if they hit the clone disguised as me. I needed to work faster.  
Thankfully, they were taking their time to be arrogant assholes. I was starting to tax my reserves a bit more than I'd like. With the seals, I'd so far only used up about a quarter of my chakra, but that was still a quarter that I wouldn't have if we got ambushed or anything.  
"What are little kids like you even doing at a test like this?" Aimi asked. "Don't you have mommies and daddies to go back and play with? Some chores that you're missing to be here?"  
The comment seemed to strike a fire under both the boys.  
"Focus," I hissed into the mic. "Keep them distracted for a few more seconds."  
I pulled out a kunai when I was standing right behind him. I wasn't going to have time to try and pull it over his head or anything. I noticed, too, that the Taki team seemed to be getting a little drowsy, their postures slouching and their eyes looking heavy.  
I let out a breath and dropped the technique, grabbing his scarf from the back and yanking the kunai through the knot in the fabric. The boy instantly whipped around to try to attack me but I ducked beneath the blow and caught the scarf as it tumbled away from his body, darting back off into the trees before either of his teammates could react.  
"Fuck!" Hiro shouted. "That little brat got the scroll!"  
"Go, go!" I cried into the headset.  
Naruto and Sasuke retreated in the opposite direction and instead the clone advanced. It went straight for Aimi, cutting her away from her teammates. Both the boys seemed to hesitate before she screeched at them, "Go after her!"  
I leapt into the trees, flying through them at an effortless speed. I could sense Hiro and Shiro but they weren't a match for my speed, barely able to keep up with me even when I hadn't bothered to let the chakra out of my weights. After a couple of seconds I felt Aimi's signature also joining the chase, lagging pretty far behind her the rest of us. There was no way she was going to be able to catch up. Apparently she realized this because I felt her signature break off and go back to where we'd ambushed them, leaving just the two boys chasing me.  
"Kasumi, which direction did you run?" Sasuke's voice crackled over the headset.  
"Don't worry I'll loop back around to your position," I answered. "I'm just going to lead these guys on a bit of a goose chase to throw them off. Get somewhere safe and I'll be there in a couple of minutes."  
I added a bit of chakra to my legs and really started to pull ahead, pointedly avoiding any signatures that I felt as I went. I led them on for three minutes before I pushed my hands into the release seal and let all of the chakra fall away from them. There wasn't anywhere near as much as I'd had in them when I released them during our first fight with Zabuza. I'd only been wearing them again for a couple of weeks, compiling as much as I could afford in that short of a span, though I still felt a noticeable difference with the weights empty.  
I landed on one of the branches in front of me and instantly latched one hand onto the branch, using my speed to instantly whip around 180 degrees and sling-shot myself in the other direction. By the time the boys caught up to where I had been I was long gone, our Earth scroll tucked securely in one of the other pockets in my jacket.  
"En route back, ETA three minutes," I said into the mic. "All targets successfully thrown off."  
I could hear Naruto cheering through Sasuke's mic. "Understood," he replied, a smug sound in his voice.  
We'd been in here for a total of half an hour and already we'd gotten everything we needed to advance to the end of it. I knew, though, that this little victory was going to be short-lived.  
.-.-.  
"I have to pee!" Naruto cried a while later.  
By this point night had already fallen. Or, I thought it had, at least. The canopy of trees was so thick that even when we first entered during the middle of the afternoon it was pretty dark. Now, though, it was dark enough to be the middle of the night, even though we'd only been in here for five or six hours. Sasuke and I exchanged glances.  
I could feel the signature waiting for us up in the trees. It'd been following us for a while, but it was the only one within my range there was no real point in saying anything considering it was keeping far enough distance that it wasn't of any danger to us. If his friends had shown up I might have said something but there wasn't really much point until then - it'd just cause the boys to be on edge.  
Well, this is how the ambush started. I opened up my senses, further expanding the radius I was scanning, but there was still only the one signature. Odd.  
"I'll turn around," I simply said.  
"Eh, you sure Kasu?" he asked. "I can always just duck in a bush or something."  
"We shouldn't be going off alone in here," I said, unable to help myself from flicking my gaze over to where the chakra signature was. "You never know when you're going to be attacked."  
I turned my back to where the signature was waiting and Sasuke moved to stand beside me.  
Surreptitiously I grabbed the inside of Sasuke's wrist, something that he nearly pulled away from, using another one of the forms of contact that Konoha shinobi had. Naruto, standing not too far from us, made an excellent form of cover, meaning that I could just use this instead of the other form of sign language, since this one was more direct and easier to use. I signed out words on his wrist, alerting him of the chakra signature waiting for us in the trees. He signed that he understood.  
I had no plans of attacking him. He didn't have their teams scroll on him. Sure, in a 3v1 we'd be able to take him no problem, but there really was no reason to. We needed to save our chakra.  
After a little ways the signature seemed to stop following us.  
"It's gone," I said, looking to Sasuke. He nodded in response.  
"Huh?"  
"There was somebody waiting to ambush us when you needed to go pee," I answered. "That's why I didn't want you going off on your own, but I also didn't want them to try and attack so I didn't say anything."  
"What's one person doing following us?" Naruto asked.  
"Scouting, I assume," I said, clicking my tongue on the roof of my mouth. "I'll alert you if I sense them come back around to attack, so at least be on guard for that."  
.-.-.  
After another hour, it was too dark for us to want to keep moving. We set up camp though my optimism in regards to how long we were going to actually have it up was low. If I was right, we were a bit overdue for the Orochimaru attack. While part of me hoped that it was late because it simply wasn't going to come, the realistic part of me quickly shut down those hopes.  
Since I was the fastest and would have the easiest time catching the small wildlife running around the forest, I was sent off to get the food. I made sure that I didn't go too far, pointedly keeping an eye on the signatures of the boys while also trying to track anything that was running past me.  
I had two kunai palmed, half an eye on the boys who were sitting at the base of a tree, the other half trained on the rabbit who was darting around a few feet from me. I needed to make sure my aim was perfect because I didn't have enough kunai to be wasting them right now. My hands were shaking, tossing the first kunai a bit low but thankfully landing the other straight through the skull of the rabbit, nailing it to the tree it was standing in front it. I grimaced - my being the best at hunting didn't make it any less unpleasant to do.  
As I went over to the tree to grab the rabbit I realized something with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I'd been paying attention to the rabbit, the boys, and everything around the boys. I'd stopped watching what was around me.  
Stupid.  
Stupid, stupid.  
What the fuck is wrong with me?  
Closing my eyes against the hammering of my heart I opened my senses and felt out exactly what I was dreading. Three signatures, surrounding me in a triangle, each about thirty feet from me and each other. They were faint, probably being muffled by genjutsu, partially why they didn't set off my instincts even though I hadn't been paying particular attention to them. I could also feel something surrounding the immediate area, vaguely resembling a barrier of some kind. Bad. Very bad. Naruto and Sasuke were on the very edge of my range, putting them roughly 350 to 400 metres away, too far for either of them to pick up on it if I flared my chakra. Even if I did message them I'd have to make it at least five minutes before they'd be able to get to me and help.  
"Oh, looks like the little princess knows we're here," one of them said, emerging from his spot in a bush. "That just ruins some of the surprise, doesn't it?"  
They were one of the teams from Otogakure, Village Hidden in the Sound.  
I may not have been able to give use any kind of flare with my chakra but I could sure as hell alert the boys that something was wrong. My hand pressed against my pant pocket, flicking on the mic in my headset.  
"What do you want?" I asked, a tremble in my voice that I didn't bother trying to hide. I wasn't going to be scaring them away anytime soon, so I figured I might as well run with the 'helpless princess' act and hope they underestimated me badly enough that I could avoid any meaningful damage.  
"Kasumi?" Sasuke's voice came back in my ear.  
I didn't reply.  
"We just want your pretty little scrolls," one of the others asked with a wicked grin.  
"She's kinda cute, don't you think, Akiro? Kaiya?"  
"A bit young for you, Ren," one of them, Kaiya, remarked. He gave another wicked grin. "Not that that's stopped you before."  
"We're on our way, Kasu!" Naruto's voice cried.  
I took stock of what I had on hand.  
One of my kunai was still stuck into the skull of the rabbit I'd killed. Another was off to the side by said rabbit. I had three more in my holster, my poison belt hidden beneath my jacket, some shuriken up my sleeve, and a few poison tags. One particular tag that I had been hoping not to use but I didn't think I was going to get much of a chance here - I was damn lucky I'd worked out the antidote a couple of days ago. The barrier complicated things but it seemed to have some height to it. I had an antidote, meaning if I did get a dose of it I would be safe - I'd just have to make sure neither of the boys got anywhere near it before the cloud cleared. This tag in particular was intended to reach over a massive area, meaning that there was nowhere in the barrier that was going to be safe once I let it off.  
My level of immunity was limited. Given the exposure I'd had by intentional, minute injections, and the times when things blew up on me and forcefully were put into my system, I had a little more leeway than they would. Not enough to keep it from being lethal but enough that if we were in it for the same amount of time I'd have a better chance surviving. Not that it really mattered, considering I had the antidote.  
One of them finally seemed to grow impatient and lashed out at me. My hand went off the mic button as I jumped away, cutting off the contact that I could have with the boys.  
"Kasu!" Naruto shouted into my ear.  
I couldn't say anything, though I really did want to. If they knew there was help on its way for me they'd finish this quickly. I wanted them to toy with me, needed them to toy with me. Give me time to figure out how I was going to work this out and not kill myself in the process.  
"Please just leave me alone," I said in my best terrified whisper. "I don't have any scrolls!"  
"Come on, why do you have to lie about it?" Akiro said. "We know you have one."  
"I don't, I swear!"  
There wasn't much room to move in here, meaning I'd have to make the most out of every bit of space I got. They laughed at me. Ren moved forward, looking like he was going to grab at my jacket. I ducked away again, but I had no more room left. My back hit the barrier.  
"Sorry, kiddo," Kaiya said. "There's no way you're getting through that."  
They were making this way too easy. If all three of them attacked at once there's no way I'd stand a chance. The area was too small and tight for me to use any ninjutsu, even though I barely had any in my arsenal, and too tight for my taijutsu style to be anywhere near effective enough to hold up. All that said though - there were three of them, all bigger than me. I may have been stronger than the average genin but I wasn't that strong.  
Two of them stood back while Ren continued to advance towards me. This time, when he came at me with a blow I had nowhere to run. Instead, I took the opening, yanking on the collar of his shirt and forcing his stomach into left my knee. I didn't bother to touch down my left foot down, instead just sharply twisting my hips and nailing him in the chest with a roundhouse kick using my right leg. The boy was sent careening into his teammates with enough force to throw all of them to the ground.  
Now!  
I yanked the tag from my belt and gave it a bit of chakra before tossing it onto them. I drew my mask up and took in a massive gulp of air, launching myself up as far as the barrier would allow. Oh God, I was so lucky. There was a single branch peeking through the edge of the barrier, only big enough for me to latch onto with one hand and hold on for dear life.  
The tag exploded, sending a toxic plume of dark black smoke all over the thirty foot area. All of them were coughing and sputtering on the ground below. The smoke began curling upwards, clawing its way up my legs and towards my face.  
Oh, God.  
"Code Flying Eagle," I managed into my mic before it got too close. "Do not enter area within 30 feet of my location, I repeat, do not enter area within 30 feet of my location."  
"Kasu are you okay?"  
"Come in, Kasumi!"  
I couldn't say anything else. I took in another huge breath of air, knowing it was the last one I was going to be taking for at least a minute. Being up here meant I had roughly a fifteen second advantage on them in terms of how long I could stay in here.  
I closed my eyes against the cloud of smoke, using my free hand to hold the side of my jacket up against the rest of my face.  
Don't breathe in.  
For the love of God, don't take a single breath in.  
Down below, I could hear the sounds of them realizing that this was more than just ordinary smoke.  
"Drop the barrier!" came the strangled cry from one of them, sounding like he was choking on it. "Akio drop the fucking barrier!"  
My lungs were burning, crying for air. I could hear the telltale sound of two of them thudding to the ground. The barrier flickered. Akio must have been one of the ones who hit the ground. He was moving into the first stage of the drug, convulsions. Since the barrier seemed to be a set and forget kind of jutsu, I was stuck waiting on him to either lose consciousness or straight die before it would go down.  
Just when I swore I couldn't hold my breath any longer the barrier faded out of existence.  
I brought my other hand up, grabbing the branch, and literally threw myself as far as I could manage, not bothering to aim for anything other than getting away from that smoke. I tumbled to the ground in a heap but I didn't even think about it, shoving my hand in the back of my belt and grabbing at the antidote.  
I let out a few dry, rough coughs. Then I pushed the cap off with my thumb and dumped the entire contents of the vile in my mouth, cupping a hand over my lips so that I couldn't accidentally cough any of it out.  
Spots were dancing in front of my eyes.  
From where I was I could see the bodies of the three shinobi who attacked me. The smoke started to disperse, finally having enough room to stretch out. I could feel the boys were near where I was. They must have seen the smoke and stayed back, thankfully far enough that even as it started to spread out they were a good distance. A violent set of coughs racked my body but I could feel the antidote doing its work, clearing my system of the toxins.  
I was just waiting for it.  
Most of the time, while antidotes did help counteract the toxins, they also tended to force your body to cleanse itself.  
As I knew it would I felt the sudden urge to keel over as my body ejected the pretty much nonexistent contents of my stomach onto the ground in front of me. It was like puking after a night of drinking - you dreaded it happening, but you felt heaps better after doing it. Shakily I stood, cringing as I felt the soreness of bruises forming on my legs. I was going to be feeling that shitty landing all night long.  
I flared my chakra as I approached the boys to avoid taking them by surprise.  
"Kasu!" Naruto shouted, throwing himself at me. I staggered back, having expected a welcoming like that.  
"Hey," I rasped, my throat still burning from the poison.  
I nodded to Sasuke who I already knew wasn't going to try and hug me. There was genuine relief in his eyes that did warm my heart some - maybe he cared more than I realized.  
"You weren't talking… we were worried," Naruto mumbled.  
"Sorry… I didn't want to worry you. I just didn't want them knowing that there was any kind of backup coming to help me, or they might have ended it before I had a chance to actually do much."  
"What happened?" Sasuke asked this time  
"I had been paying attention to you guys and the animals I was hunting," I explained. "After the initial sweep I did entering the area I stopped watching what was around me. Three of them crept up on me and encircled me. I'd have just run away, but there was some kind of barrier that they put up that kept me stuck in the area. Too small to fight in with my taijutsu or any of the shitty ninjutsu that I know."  
"You trapped yourself in there with a poison?" Sasuke asked in bewilderment.  
"I had no choice," I defended. "There was a branch I grabbed onto that kept me out of the smoke before it got to them, so once the barrier went down I could get out before it got too close to me."  
Naruto looked back over at them and an unreadable emotion entered his eyes. "Are… are they dead?"  
His words hit me like a brick wall.  
Dead.  
Lethal poison.  
One antidote.  
There was something about being in the midst of combat that made taking the life of another seem different. It was easier to do it and not even think twice. I knew that the poison was going to kill them - that's what it was designed for. I had other poison tags in my belt that weren't lethal. They were far, far riskier, given that they tended to act more slowly and people were more likely to have immunity to them. I knew that. That's why I'd gone straight for the lethal one without even considering using my others.  
What if they weren't going to kill me, though?  
What if they were just going to take the scroll tucked securely in my pocket, beat me up, and leave.  
"Kasu?" Naruto said gently.  
I blinked at him. "Oh… uh… yeah… they're uh… they're dead," I answered numbly.  
Without another word I moved forward to where they were sprawled on the ground. I opened up my senses, trying to ignore the stark lack of chakra in the three bodies as I looked around for the scroll. Ren was laying on the ground in front of me, his eyes open wide in horror, one hand still held up to his throat. I reached into his pocket and pulled out the Earth scroll.  
It was still warm.  
I walked back to the boys, handed the scroll to Sasuke, the only one who didn't currently have a scroll, and then continued walking, waiting for the boys to follow behind me. As we went back to our camp I couldn't figure out which part of what just unfolded left me more disturbed: the fact that I didn't hesitate to use lethal force, of the fact that I didn't regret it.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY  
.-.-.  
After that, we just stuck around the camp. The boys kept shooting me glances, unsure what to say, and I stayed silent, staring at the ground between my feet, trying to absorb what had happened. When my thoughts had started to drive me mad I instead opened my senses, watching what was going on around me instead.  
Naruto sat on one side of the area, Sasuke on the other. They may have been getting along a bit better but they still wanted to keep as much room between each other as they could.  
There were animals scurrying around, completely blissful to the war going on between the people around them.  
"Kasu… you okay?"  
"Fine."  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah."  
Typically I was the type who liked to cuddle when they were upset. Contact with others brought me comfort when nothing else would, part of why I spent nearly half my childhood sleeping in mama and papa's bed when I had nightmares. Right now though he was giving me space and I was damn glad about it.  
As far as I knew, I was the first of the Rookie 9 to actually take a life, and I was going to keep that to myself for a while.  
Then, pricking at the edge of my senses, I started to feel it. A mass of chakra unlike anything I'd ever felt before. My head whipped in the direction and I jumped up, both boys following my lead.  
"What is it?" Sasuke asked tensely, two kunai at the ready.  
"There's… this mass of chakra," I muttered with wide eyes. "It's fucking huge."  
"Is somebody coming?" Naruto asked.  
I shook my head. Both of them were watching me, waiting for something, but I had no words. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Then, I heard the whistle of winds tearing through the trees and I instinctively threw myself to the side, screaming, "Move!"  
A half a second later a massive hurricane ripped through the ground where we had been, scattering all of us and leaving a crater where we had been sitting. I clambered up the nearest tree and situated myself among the foliage, staring down with open senses. Orochimaru. I knew it was coming eventually… there was no way of avoiding it.  
He stood in the middle of the crater, still disguised as the genin from Grass, looking entirely relaxed and casual despite the absolutely destroyed ground he was standing on. Sasuke was off to my left and I darted through the trees over to where he was, softly landing beside him in a crouch. His face turned to mine, eyes wide in alarm, his breath coming in sharp gasps.  
"What… what was that?" he asked.  
"Ridiculously powerful wind release… there's no way in hell a genin could have pulled that off," I replied, noting the sudden lack of chakra where Orochimaru was just a couple of seconds ago. Oh, no. "We need to find Naruto and get out of here."  
I said that, but I had a very good idea of where he was right now. There was an animalistic mass of chakra that I'd only ever felt coming from a summon off to my right, most likely the snake that I knew had swallowed Naruto. While I would have liked to help him we were in no position to do so, not with Orochimaru on the loose.  
"Do you feel him anywhere?"  
I went to reply when a familiar voice called out, "I'm right here! You guys alright?"  
I locked eyes with Sasuke before tearing my gaze away and over to 'Naruto'. It felt so wrong to look at Naruto and see such distorted, ugly chakra. The signature was the same as I'd felt coming off the Grass-nin, chakra that was trying to hide itself yet still radiated power.  
Rather than say anything I simply stared.  
"What's wrong?" 'Naruto' asked.  
In a flash I had a handful of kunai and was hurling them at where I thought 'Naruto' was. All my kunai simply thunked against the trunk of the tree. A low chuckle sounded behind us and I whipped around, staring at the man who was currently smiling with a cruel grin that didn't belong on the face of my best friend.  
"Well, well, very good." With a massive puff of smoke one facade fell away to be replaced by another, a face I'd seen before. "I see this is going to be entertaining indeed."  
Sasuke regarded him with a haughty expression. "You're bold, attacking us, especially alone like this."  
"Bold? That's… one way of putting it, Sasuke Uchiha." His words were slow and deliberate, sending chills up my spine. "Really, I just wanted to see you. I've heard much about the great Uchiha clan, I had to come and find out what all the fuss has been about."  
"You've met me, now be on your way," Sasuke replied. His words were cold and distant but the fear in his eyes betrayed him.  
"So tense, dear boy," Orochimaru said, inclining his head. "Don't you want to try and get our Earth scroll from us? You'd have the complete set, Heaven and Earth."  
He dangled the scroll out in front of us for a split second before a long tongue slid out of his mouth and wrapped around the scroll. He slipped it back past his lips, taking the scroll with it, and I couldn't keep a disgusted look from crossing my features.  
"Unnerved, girl?" he asked.  
I didn't say anything, levelling my gaze with his.  
"We don't need an Earth scroll," Sasuke said. "So you can leave before you waste more of both our time."  
"You've been busy then," he purred. "Well, what does it matter? When all's said and done, you'll be dead and I'll have both the scrolls."  
With that, Orochimaru began seeping killing intent like nothing I'd ever felt before. I felt like I could actually physically see it, a thick blood red tainting the air around me, shoving itself through my body and strangling me from the inside. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. My heart hammered in my chest in erratic spasms. There was nothing but death and darkness and danger and destruction. It took everything I had in me to stay on my feet when every inch of my body was screaming at me to curl up and die.  
I may have managed to stay on my feet but Sasuke hadn't, having fallen to his hand and knees, eyes wide and glazed over with fear.  
The genjutsu.  
He's under the genjutsu.  
Why aren't I under the genjutsu?  
I wanted to move, I wanted to help him. I had to. Yet, my feet wouldn't listen, stuck to the branch like the tree had wrapped its roots around my ankles and was holding them prisoner.  
"Prey caught in the gaze of a predator," Orochimaru mused, his tongue flicking out and slipping across his lips. "Paralyzed with fear, how amusing."  
Amazingly, Sasuke staggered to his feet, swaying some even as he righted himself. His hands were shaking but he grabbed a kunai and held it in a defensive position.  
He blinked at the boy. "Interesting. Tell me, how does this feel?"  
The killing intent flew through the roof. Instinctively, I raised a hand to my throat, clawing at it, but to no avail. It was like I was drowning, like somebody had poured a gallon of water down my throat and left me to struggle. My knees were wobbling. The air was thrumming - I wonder if it was just the two of us, feeling all of this right now, or if there were people nearby, getting a second-hand version of this terror.  
Suddenly, he jumped from his branch to the end of ours, kunai brandished and his feet scraping across the bark of the tree as he made his way towards Sasuke. "It'll be quick, don't you worry. Though, I'm sure you're aware of that, since I've shown you oh so many delicious times already."  
Everything inside me was screaming.  
Move!  
You useless, useless girl!  
Do something!  
Move your fucking feet!  
The last time you froze in front of danger you died for it!  
It was like something inside me snapped. I didn't think, didn't stop and wonder if trying to fight any of this was futile - my primal instincts took over and I hooked an arm under Sasuke's elbows, pumping chakra into my legs before I took off jumping through the trees.  
I heard a gleeful laugh behind us. "Run, run little prey! The predator will still catch you."  
I took a sharp turn to the left and skipped a few branches, jumping to the furthest tree I could before I dumped Sasuke on his ass. His eyes were still wide and scared, a stark reminder that despite everything he was just a terrified twelve year old boy faced with power he couldn't comprehend. I felt for him, I really did, but we didn't have time for this. I pulled my hand back and slapped him across the face.  
Sometimes, pain was the only thing that could clear your head.  
He blinked and I barely gave him a second to get his bearings before I barked at him, "Move!"  
We took off through the trees, weaving across the branches a short ways before Sasuke stopped again, his head whipping around furiously. "We need to find Naruto!"  
I still couldn't get any kind of feel for his chakra. Was he still stuck inside the summons?  
"I know, but not - jump!" There was a split second where I felt it before the head of a snake, bigger than a garbage truck crashed through the tree he was standing on.  
Holy shit.  
Splinters showered over me and I raised my arms in front of my face, wincing a little as I felt some of the pieces embed themselves in my skin. Later. The snake blinked its eyes at me and I pushed backwards, but it didn't seem particularly interested in me. It moved back towards Sasuke, mouth agape and fangs gleaming as they sliced through the air towards the boy.  
I hesitated. What could I do? Hastily, I grabbed a handful of kunai and tossed them at the snake. The kunai stuck out from its body, blood seeping from the wounds, but the snake changed onwards. Sasuke hurled a wave of kunai at it, jumping back onto a branch further away from me than I'd like. I hadn't even noticed him turn on his Sharingan.  
"Stay back!" he shouted. "Get away from me!"  
I'm not sure what did it but the snake gave a shuttering hiss before it flopped down on one of the branches, its tongue still leaking out from its mouth. Sasuke seemed to heave a sigh of relief and I hopped to a branch closer to him.  
"Stay focused!" I called over to him.  
As if I'd cued it the dead body of the snake began to writhe, the back of Orochimaru's body breaking through the scales on its skin. He let a wet, bubbly laugh.  
"Ah, I can feel your fear and desperation. It's only natural, the prey must never let down its guard, not even for a moment," he said, fully emerging from the corpse of the snake. "Especially not when in the presence of a predator such as I."  
With inhuman speed he flew out of the corpse, twisting his body up the trunk of the tree like it was rubber on his way to Sasuke. I was too far to try and stop it. My hand went to my pouch before another flurry of kunai sunk into the wood in front of Orochimaru, bringing him to a halt. A grin spread across my face despite myself - it's like Inari said, heroes always show up at the last minute.  
"Hey, what are you doing starting the party without me?" Naruto shouted, arms crossed over his chest.  
"You're late, idiot!" I shouted back at him.  
We may have still been totally, royally screwed, but at least we were all together.  
Orochimaru regarded Naruto with amusement, the bottom half of his body curled along the end of the branch and the front part of his body laying flat against it, lounging against the wood like it was a throne. His hand curled up to rest under his chin.  
"So, I see you got away from my friend then?" he asked. "Well done."  
Naruto didn't even seem the least bit fazed by the Killing Intent still flowing through the air, glaring at the Sanin with heat that I rarely saw. "Look, I don't know what you're doing or who you are, but you're picking on my friends! You'd better just slither back into whatever hole you crawled out of before I turn you into a pair of shoes!"  
Kid had balls of steel, I'd give him that.  
"Shut up, Naruto! You'll get us all killed!" Sasuke yelled at him. He looked at me, my arms bleeding from all the crap that had gotten stuck in them and tree branches whipping across my skin. His eyes shuffled to Naruto, who was still covered in snake saliva and scratches. Then he looked back to me. "Just give him the scroll."  
Orochimaru let out a little laugh, not even bothering to take his gaze off the boy.  
"Sasuke are you crazy! We can't just give the scroll up to a freak like this!" Naruto screamed at him. "What's wrong with you?"  
"Stay out of it! You have no idea what you're up against!"  
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Naruto raged at him. "Surrendering? This isn't the Sasuke that I know! When did you become such a coward?"  
Orochimaru lifted his upper body up off the branch and grinned at Sasuke, completely ignoring Naruto's outburst. "Very wise and sensible. Sometimes the helpless prey realize that their only hope is to capture the attention of the predator with a more… appealing prize," he purred. "But I can't say I'm particularly bothered by the scroll."  
I had taken a bit of a step back, eyeing up our surroundings. There may have been plenty of places to run to but that didn't matter - he was faster than any of us could even dream of being. We were trapped by a power that there was no way for us to even hope of escaping from. "We need to get out," I murmured. "Where…"  
"Kasu, not you too!" Naruto shouted. "What are you so afraid of?"  
"Since you seem blissfully unaware, I guess… I'll just have to show you," Orochimaru said, lifting his sleeve. Oh… oh no. He bit the edge of his thumb and ran it along the tattoos on his arm, hands flying through seals before he slammed them down on the trunk. "Summoning Jutsu!"  
If the first snake was big, this one was at least ten times bigger. Deep brown scales were suddenly all I could see in front of me as Orochimaru rose up on it, elevating himself to the branch near where Naruto was on.  
The snake raised its tail up, shaking it.  
"I will warn you… he likes to play with his food."  
"Run, Naruto!" I screamed, but not fast enough.  
The tail smacked down on the branch Naruto was standing on, vaporizing it in a single blow. Naruto was sent flying up into the air, through another trunk, and then smacked into a branch with a sickening noise.  
And I felt it.  
That chakra.  
That thick, powerful, dangerous chakra.  
Naruto fell through the air and flipped his body upwards at the last minute, bringing his ankle down onto the nose of the snake with punishing force. It reeled back, tongue flicking wildly through the air, but Naruto didn't stop there.  
He let out a barrage of blows against its head, shoving himself back into the air every few seconds only to land down again with more force than before. All the while, I could feel it, the Kyuubi chakra pulsing in his body, flickering to light, begging to be let out to play. My throat thickened with fear. This entire situation was like an assault on my senses, tearing me between everything that needed to be see and understood around me.  
I heard the burst of flames igniting and Orochimaru sent an inferno burning towards Naruto, catching him mid-blow. The boy was sent careening back, through the trees and landing with a brutal crash. Without meaning to I let out a gasp. I knew he was alright, still alive, somewhere down there… but wow… that sounded like it hurt.  
Sasuke's eyes went from Naruto had disappeared to, back to me, then up to the man who was now sitting on the snake with a gleeful grin on his face. "Who are you?" he asked in a distant voice. "What do you want?"  
"Since you asked so nicely, my name is Orochimaru," the man answered cheerfully, his grin spreading across his face far past the point of normal human faces. "And what I want… well… I guess that'd be you."  
In a flash he was careening towards Sasuke, moving with speed that I'd never seen. And Sasuke wasn't moving. He was stuck there, staring ahead of him in abject fear. The snake got closer, and still… he didn't move. I realized suddenly that he wasn't going to move. Naruto was supposed to stop the snake, but he was still down there, his chakra fuzzy in a way that led me to believe he had been knocked out cold. My hands moved on their own, flying a series of hand seals and I cried, "Wind Release: Wind Barrage!"  
The air slammed into Sasuke, sending him flying back onto a branch just as the head of the snake crushed the one he was standing on. The landing wasn't exactly graceful but it was certainly better than being destroyed by a snake.  
Orochimaru let out a laugh.  
And then he turned towards me.  
My muscles locked up, eyes going wide.  
Ah yes - this is what it feels like to stare death in the face.  
He seemed to give me a once over before grinning. "Oh, little shadow, so brave indeed," he purred. "Quick thinking, I'll give you that. Now, though, you're starting to be a bit of a nuisance, I'm afraid."  
One second, Orochimaru was there, standing atop his snake with his arms at his side.  
Then before my eyes could even process that he was gone there was something crashing against my head and I was unconscious, my body sent hurtling down to the forest floor below.  
.-.-.  
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was how badly the air stank of blood and smoke.  
The second one was a ridiculous level of pain.  
A groan escaped my lips. My eyes opened, the world spinning in front of me. Okay. Take stock. What… I blinked, identifying what my eyes were showing me as the forest floor. Kami, I had fallen all the way down. How was I not dead?  
From the angle at which the world was becoming clear, I knew that I'd landed on my right side. I didn't even want to guess how badly landing like that had fucked me up. I rolled onto my back, biting back a cry as pain burned white hot up the entire right side of my body. This was bad. What made me it even worse, though, was the realization that neither of the boys had been able to come down and move me to a safer place, immediately signaling to me that I was currently the only one on our team conscious.  
I braced myself for the pain as I sat up. I wheezed out a breath, wincing. Broken ribs, that was for sure. Given that I'd fallen this far I'd be shocked if I didn't have a concussion. I realized quickly that my jacket had fallen off at one point during the fall, the scroll in it, but I had other things to worry about right now. I glanced down at my arm, wanting to vomit at what I saw - the bone was poking up in two separate places, pushing against my skin. Moving my gaze up a bit further, I saw that my shoulder had, without a doubt, been popped out of the joint. Aside from all those, the entire right side of my body seemed to have gotten scraped up on the way down, my face included if the throbbing I felt in my cheek was anything to go by. Thankfully they were all minor enough that I could heal them up later once we were in a safer spot, but that was going to take a ton of chakra.  
Fan-fucking-tastic.  
But hey - at least I was actually alive. If I wasn't a shinobi, without a doubt, that fall would have left me six feet under.  
I knew before I did anything else I had to do damage control on myself. I had a decent amount of high-level pain medication stashed on the back of my belt, but before I could take them, I had to get my shoulder back in place. As much as it was going to suck if I couldn't feel what I was doing I wasn't going to know if I'd gotten it back in place properly.  
I yanked a kunai off my holster, shocked that one had even managed to stay with me through the fall, and tore it through the bottom part of my shirt, getting a good chunk off of it. I dropped the kunai and stuffed the fabric in my mouth, closing my eyes.  
In one harsh jerk I forced my arm back into its joint.  
The fabric muffled my scream of pain, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. Fuck. Oh, sweet mother of fuck. I glanced down, visually able to tell that it was in the right place. Just to be safe, I moved my arm around, testing the joint, ignoring the pain that shocked through it at moving the broken bone.  
Okay. Now I could get myself hopped up on pain meds.  
I moved my hand into the back pouch and pulled out the vial I knew had the strongest stuff inside of it. I was going to need all the help I was going to get. I downed it in one gulp and shook my head against the taste, instantly regretting it when I felt the world spin. Yeah, I had a concussion.  
Once I felt the pain start to fade from my body I heaved myself to my feet. It seemed that the right side of my upper body took the brunt of the damage. There were some wicked bruises on my hips and legs but the only thing that actually broke on impact was my arm. Now I had to get us somewhere safe. I opened my senses, searching out for where the boys were. Sasuke was the closest to me, about twenty metres up laying across a branch.  
Before any of that, I hunted down my jacket, finding it hanging from a part of a tree that I must have ploughed through on my way down. Thankfully the scroll was still in there. I pulled the scroll from the inside pocket, leaving the jacket where it was and shoving the scroll into the waist of my pants. I didn't have any hands to carry the jacket.  
Okay. Now Sasuke.  
I got up to where he was, taking in the scorch marks and small patches of the tree still slightly alight, flames licking at the bark - that would be where the smoke smell was coming from. I moved over to his prone body and closed my eyes. There, on the back of his neck I could see the curse seal, the dark colouring of it in stark contrast to his worryingly pale skin. Using my good arm I wrapped it around his waist, hoisting him up on my shoulder. I needed to get us all moved before these pain meds wore off.  
I felt out for Naruto and caught the flickering of his chakra further down, in a different place from where I thought it would be. He must have regained consciousness during the fight with Orochimaru after I went down. I could feel the difference in his chakra, the containment seal over the Kyuubi's seal interfering with the processes of his chakra. Did this affect how well he healed? I blinked, for the first time in twelve years, genuinely unable to remember.  
Things just got better and better.  
I ended up dropping back to the forest floor, setting Sasuke down, going back up to grab Naruto, and then taking him down to the ground. If I didn't have one broken arm I'd just carry both of them and take the branches on my way to safety, but that wasn't an option right now. I couldn't even rig up something to carry him on my back since I couldn't tie a secure enough knot with only one hand. I ended up tying a sloppy loop across Naruto's waist, then tying the other end to my waist. The bottom parts of his legs were dragging across the ground as we went, and I'd heal up whatever damage that ended up causing… there just weren't any other options. At least this way, if the knot failed, he'd just take a bit of a hit to the head instead of falling 30 metres like I already had.  
I dragged Naruto and carried Sasuke through the forest, not in any position to be picky about where we ended up settling. Eventually I found a small cave that was going to have to do. It was a lot more easily defensible than the tree that they had used in the show. If I had come to the tree first, I would have gone for that, but this was closer and I could already feel my pain meds starting to wear off, not to mention the fatigue pulling at my body.  
Being knocked unconscious wasn't exactly the same as sleeping, your body didn't get a chance to recover in the way sleep allowed it to. I could feel sleep deprivation starting to kick into my body by the time I set both of the boys down on their backs, sitting on the ground between them. Everything in my body ached for sleep but I knew that I couldn't leave the boys undefended like this - plus, if I was asleep when Team Dosu arrived, they'd probably just kill me where I was.  
I let that lovely thought motivate me to scoot away a bit, biting down on the thumb of my left hand and setting it down on the ground, gingerly placing my right beside it. Keiko appeared in front of me, the cheer in her posture disappearing the second she laid eyes on me.  
"Oh, Mistress…" she said.  
"It looks really bad, I know," I muttered. "It feels pretty bad, actually, that's why I called you here."  
Her eyes not only roamed over my entire body but they flicked back to the boys. "Bandages, salves, cold and hot water, disinfectant," she listed. "Anything else that you require?"  
"Aspirin and more pain medication," I murmured, my good hand going to my temple. "Thank you."  
"Of course, Mistress."  
My arm and shoulder weren't anything I wanted to try and heal. Knitting up bones and repairing muscle tissue were far beyond my capabilities when I was in my right mind. To try and heal them with a concussion was just idiotic. I'd leave the bone for now, not trusting myself to set it properly, bandage up my shoulder and loop it off in a sling for my arm. Keeping it from moving around too much was a solid first step.  
While I waited for Keiko to return I moved over to Naruto, lighting my left hand with green chakra and healing up the cuts that were littering pretty much every inch of his body. There was nothing I could do about the seal and I couldn't transfer him any of my chakra because I was going to need every bit of it I had, so it was just up to his own body to heal itself as best it could.  
I patted down both of the boys and realized that they each still had managed to keep hold of their scrolls through the entire ordeal. If anything, at least we could do as I planned and head straight for the tower as soon as both of the boys were awake.  
I had to survive another ambush first, though.  
After I'd done everything I could for Naruto I moved over to Sasuke. He was running a high fever, more heat radiating off of him than Naruto normally had, and that was saying something. I was glad Keiko suggested cold water because I wouldn't have even thought of that. I didn't want to get anywhere near his head with my medical jutsu, so I kept myself to healing his face and some of the more serious cuts lingering over his body. It wasn't perfect but he wouldn't be bleeding out anytime soon and that was all I needed right now.  
With that done, I finally moved onto myself.  
I waited for Keiko to get back. I needed to actually clean off my face some before I could start trying to heal up what I could only assume was an absolute disaster. She poofed into existence in front of me, everything contained in a little basket in front of her. She set it down, padding over to the boys and nodding approvingly.  
"This is everything you asked for, Mistress," she said. "Do you need anything else?"  
"No, Keiko, this is it," I said. "Thank you."  
She set me with a stare. It was odd seeing little Keiko who was eternally cheerful now speaking to me in such a serious manner. "My pleasure, Mistress. Please be safe."  
I gave her a little nod before she poofed off. I pulled the basket towards me, taking note of the mirror she had included in there. I grabbed the canteen filled with cold water and a couple of bandages and made my way back over to Sasuke. I put the cloth over his forehead then used my mouth to open the cap, slowly dripping the water down onto his forehead. I wasn't sure how much that was going to do but it was better than nothing.  
I pulled out the warm water next, pouring it over the right side of my face and letting it wash off the dirt and caked on blood from my rough landing. It stung, but compared to popping my shoulder back into its socket it was like little tickles on my cheek, barely even noticeable. I grabbed one of the clean bandages, using it to dab away at the wounds as well and give myself a decent view of what exactly was going on there.  
I lifted the mirror up to my face and let out a little breath. It was bad, a couple of the scrapes looking like they might even leave faint scars, but there was nothing there that was completely unfixable. I set the mirror back down and raised my hand up to my face, clearing off as much as I was willing to waste chakra on. The pain was definitely improved. After that, I moved onto the bruises covering my right hip and legs, only doing as much as I could while still keeping enough chakra around to stay conscious and mobile.  
Lastly, I bandaged myself up. At this point, I was bandaging myself to keep things together, not to keep myself from bleeding. I slipped the bottom part of my shirt up and awkwardly wrapped some bandages over my ribs, wincing in pain but at least able to breathe more easily. My shirt had gotten torn and ripped on the way down. I tried to pull it off, but there was no way I was going to get it up around my shoulder and over my arm, so I settled to just mutilating it with a kunai, tearing off the right sleeve of it and putting slits down the right side and up towards my neck. It looked like a complete mess but it allowed me full access to the area. I was a bit more firm in wrapping my shoulder, though I only lightly hooked it over my wrist and the bottom part of my elbow, not wanting to make the breaks worse than they already were.  
I popped an aspirin in my mouth, took a sip from the canteen of cold water, and got onto my feet again. My belt was still secured around my waist, thankfully not shattered to bits - ninja glass was designed to take brutal beatings without breaking for these exact reasons. I couldn't feel anybody getting near us yet, at least, so that meant I had enough time to set some quick traps and wait for team Dosu to approach. At this point, I was hoping to just hold them off long enough that Team 10 and Team Guy would get here. Even if Team Guy didn't help, having extra Leaf shinobi might be enough to scare them off without causing too much trouble.  
Sasuke and Naruto had always been the ones to be good with setting traps. Mostly it was Naruto, with his crazy creativity due to his prank-heavy nature. Sasuke was good with wire and you didn't need creativity if you were smart with that stuff. Me? That was never my thing. Sadly, not even the pressure of the situation helped me any.  
I set a few tags across the ground, lightly covering them in mud or leaves, using the more obvious ones to distract them from the others I concealed with a genjutsu that wouldn't tax my reserves. I was pretty much useless with ninja wire but Sasuke had a spool of it in his bag and really, what harm could it do to at least have some of it spread out across the bottom parts of the trees in around our cave. I wasn't going to be able to rely on just these, though.  
Fear started to claw its way into my throat again. I didn't know what I was going to do.  
I was down an arm, sore literally everywhere else on my body, sleep deprived, and concussed. This was going to be a rough fight, though I didn't get much a of a choice. I couldn't just let them walk in and hurt my friends. Even Sasuke, for all his infuriating behavior, was still somebody I'd give my life to protect if it came down to it.  
I was going to have to use my bloodlimit to make this work. If I attacked, I had to guaranteed take out one of them for an extended period of time, on my very first hit. The best bet for me to take out was Dosu. He was the one of the team who could do the most damage. Even unsteady on my feet, I could dodge effectively enough that Kin's senbon wouldn't be a huge issue and Zaku's wind blasts would only hit me if I was being stupid. Dosu's ability, though, would be a nightmare to fight right now. Combined with him being the leader I could bet that getting him out would greatly tip the scales in my favor.  
I didn't get much time to recover before I felt the three chakra signatures approaching.  
I popped my soldier pill and felt the chakra surge through my entire body, sending a jolt through my system like I'd just taken an ice bath. Alright. Here we go.  
They made their way through the small traps, playfully setting them off as they went. They cut the wire, they tossed rocks at the tags. While they didn't seem to do any damage, the explosions seemed to be attracting the attention of two groups of signatures nearby. If I didn't recognize them, I'd be worried. I did, though, and I felt even more grateful than usual that so many of the people I seemed to encounter were too arrogant for their own good.  
They moved to stand in front of the cave.  
"He said they'd be in there?" one of them asked. I crept forward, peeking through the foliage. It was Zaku speaking.  
"Yes," Dosu replied. "Sasuke and his teammates."  
"I can only see two people," Kin said, glancing around. I leant back against the trunk of the tree and tried to make myself as invisible as possible. Her eyes seemed to scan over me without actually seeing me. "Where's the third?"  
"Does it matter?" Dosu asked. "We have no business with her, we're only here for Sasuke."  
I had perched myself a little ways up, on the branch of a tree, kunai in my good hand. I felt myself flashing back to what Ibiki had said to us during the first exam.  
You will face many missions in your day that seem like they're a suicide mission if you start to think about it, but you cannot do that. You have to only think about the goal and how you will achieve it through courage and discipline.  
I don't think he expected us to make use of that little nugget of wisdom as soon as I was.  
Letting Ibiki's words pound in my head I steeled my nerves. I was terrified but that was just too bad right now, I had to act. My attention moved to Dosu who was slowly making his way over, nearly within jumping distance. He was good with sound. If he heard me he'd be able to react before I'd have a chance to land any kind of blow. I flicked on my technique and launched out of the tree, dropping it a split second before landing on Dosu and slamming the hilt of my kunai against his the top of his head.  
He wilted beneath the blow and I went down with him, a cry pulling from my lips as my entire body was jostled. Fuck, that hurt.  
"What the hell?" Kin shouted.  
Everything was screaming in pain.  
Before I had a chance to regain my bearings a blast of wind hit me square in the stomach, shoving me backwards at blinding speed. My head snapped back against the tree and I blinked away the spots dancing across my vision. Everything was swimming in front of my eyes. With the amount of times I'd hit my head in the last few hours, I was seriously starting to worry about permanent brain damage.  
The two Sound-nin seemed distracted by their own unconscious teammate, checking to make sure he wasn't actually dead, giving me time to recover. Okay, now what? One of them was down for a short bit of time, but that still left me outnumbered. I hissed out a breath between my teeth, jaw clenched.  
Apparently finished their once-over the two turned back to me, exchanging sadistic glances that made me want to just curl up and die.  
Get up.  
Think of them, fight through the pain.  
Get up!  
Shakily, I pushed myself to my feet, glaring at the two people in front of me. Stall them. Just keep them waiting, keep their attention.  
"What do you want?" I asked, speaking slowly and deliberately.  
"We're supposed to have a little fun with your friend Sasuke in there," Kin said. She took a step towards me, hand going into her senbon pouch. "But if you're so keen on taking his place then I guess he'll just have to share."  
I licked my dry lips nervously, forcing myself to look straight forward.  
"If I say that I've never met anybody name Sasuke, will that change anything?"  
Zaku laughed. "Afraid not, girlie."  
I felt the killing intent coming off the two of them. It was nothing compared to Orochimaru, barely even registering on my radar, but it put me on edge all the same. My hopes of being able to stall them were slowly dwindling away.  
Zaku shot a blast of air towards me. I dodged it, jumping straight up to avoid the air and the senbon whipping towards me. I realized that, at the very least, they couldn't attack at the exact same time - Zaku's wind would just throw any of Kin's senbon off course if they collided. I felt like I was part of the circus, dodging, weaving, holding them at a distance because I needed an opening to close it.  
Any kunai I tossed Zaku could just throw all the way back at me. I couldn't make use of any of my poison tags because Zaku would just clear the air around them before any meaningful damage could be done by them. I did my best to make use of the trees around me, jumping in and out of their cover, but I was still fighting a losing battle.  
"This is getting boring," Kin finally said. "Let's just leave her up there and kill Sasuke, clearly she's not going to be able to stop us."  
Bad. Very bad.  
I had to do something, I had to keep their attention.  
Zaku shrugged and I heard their footsteps, moving out of the small clearing.  
The strategic and careful approach just wasn't cutting it. That only meant one thing: time to do something stupid. Again.  
I moved out from under the tree, hucking a kunai at Zaku's back. He turned, using his wind to stop it cold in its track, the metal clattering as it hit the ground.  
"What's wrong, haven't had enough?"  
"Not even close," I snarled.  
I flicked on my bloodlimit and sprinted up to Kin.  
When you spar with somebody, you tend to aim your blows in general spots. The middle of the back, the chest, the stomach, places that are large and easy to hit without causing major damage. A real fight though, you didn't want to be throwing anything there. You wanted to hit them where it was going to hurt. You wanted fast, meaningful blows. If you were fighting a guy, you bet your ass you're going to slam your heel into his most sensitive areas. You aim for the face where there's a plethora of nerves to ensure maximum pain. If you ever went behind somebody you had wanted to hit the lower back or right where the neck starts because those are the weakest part of the spine. Using chakra opened up a third option for hitting them behind the heart because if you hit somebody with enough chakra there you could overload the chakra flow around it and send them into cardiac arrest. If you were at their side or slightly in front, you could hit the ribs, messing with their ability to breathe properly.  
Or, in my case, you'd aim for the ankle. The ankle was easy to break, was a major blow to their mobility, and just generally hurt like a bitch when broken.  
I raised my leg, dumped chakra into it, and let my technique drop, stomping on her ankle with desperate ferocity. The bone shattered beneath my foot and she screamed with pain. I clamped my good hand around her wrist to keep her from moving away and her partner turned on the spot towards me, arms poised in front of him, ready to attack.  
It had been a traumatic day. I was running on no sleep. I'd killed people for the first time in my life. I was wounded, my entire body one massive ache. My two teammates were injured and I knew already that I couldn't keep playing it safe.  
The logical next step would be to get away from whatever Zaku was going to do and move back into the safety of cover. The other option, though, was to hope that whatever damage my next blow did to Kin was greater than the damage I was going to take from what Zaku was about to dish out.  
At this point I was fed up. I just wanted to go home. And with my concussion, well, I guess I wasn't making the best decisions that I could be.  
I took all the anger, frustration, and fear that I was feeling and used that to power myself as I funneled a mountain of chakra into my leg and raised it again, bringing my foot down onto Kin's knee with a vicious amount of force. She let out another scream and I let go of her wrist. She crumpled to the ground, not having anything else to keep her standing. In the same second, Zaku bombarded me with a stream of air that I had no hope of blocking, pitching me into the air and sending my body flipping around wildly until I landed a few yards away in a heap.  
"She broke my fucking leg!" Kin screeched. "Stupid little bitch!"  
I let out a laugh from my spot on the ground. "What do they always say?" I asked rhetorically, my voice sounding a little crazed even to my own ears. "The worst thing you can do to a shinobi is corner them, right?"  
"I'll end this," Zaku said through grit teeth.  
There was nothing left that I could do. I'd used my chakra to take out Kin. My body was starting to shut itself down from fatigue, the effects of the soldier pill seeping out of my veins. I'd done way better than I ever thought I was going to, taking two of them out with me. I forced myself onto my feet - if I was going to lose, I might as well go out fighting.  
And then, off to my right, I felt it. My backup. Zaku approached me, arm at the ready, but just before he was going to let loose another attack a flash of green shot out from the bush and tackled the boy to the ground, his body moving in a blur of motion. I felt relief flow through my body until a wave of senbon pierced my stomach.  
"Fucking hell!" I cried, looking over at the girl who was lying on the ground, one arm propping her up and the other full of senbon. Thankfully, her aim seemed to have suffered some, given that nothing she hit seemed to be vital - it just hurt, like most things on my body right now.  
"I'm not down and out yet," she spat.  
Fantastic. I yanked the senbon out of my skin and staggered back, trying to get behind a tree for some amount of cover. It's not like she could move to get around it. She sent a few more flying into the trunk of the tree. I ignored them, waiting to move to another cover, when the tree exploded against my back, sending me flying forward from the force of the blast.  
I managed to roll my body in the air so that I landed on my feet. I didn't bother trying to recover, instead flinging myself out of the way, anticipating another wave of senbon. I heard the sound of them hitting the ground where I stood and once again the ground exploded.  
She was attaching exploding tags to her senbon.  
Who the fuck did that?  
I weaved through the small forested area before I noticed the sudden lack of senbon littering the path I was taking. I stopped, plastering myself behind a tree, my hand moving to my pouch of kunai, when I heard the cry, "Front Lotus!"  
In the show, he tried to use it on Dosu, who would have died if Zaku hadn't cushioned the landing. Now, though, there was nobody to save him from the fall and there was a sickening sound from the other side of the tree as the two of them landed. I shifted out from behind the tree, my eyes going between the bloody mess that was Zaku's head and the look of horror on Kin's face. Lee stood in front of him, a grim frown on his face that looked so out of place in comparison to the cartoonish goofiness I had last seen him display.  
Kin stared at her downed comrades with wide eyes before she held her hands up. Her position just went from good to bad in one move. From where I was standing, her senbon pouch only had another handful left, and it looked like she'd run out of exploding tags from the little show she put on for me. There was nothing left for her to do. "Please, I surrender. You can have our scroll."  
Lee looked to me, silently asking whether I was alright with this, and I managed a nod. I'd killed three people already, I saw no reason to keep going. The girl pulled the scroll from her pocket and threw it at Lee who snatched it out of the air.  
Kin struggled to her feet, having to hop because I'd completely destroyed her left leg. She managed to bend down and sling Dosu's arm over her shoulders and hobbled off, leaving the dead body of Zaku sitting in front of the cave. Lee watched them go before he looked down at the scroll, stumbling over to where I was.  
Oh yeah, that was right. He had to open the first gate to use that. It was incredibly hard on his body, enough so that I was surprised he was still up and walking.  
"How badly are you injured?" he asked.  
In the show, I remembered him being his usual self, declaring his love for Sakura and pledging himself to protect her with his life. Yet here he seemed subdued and calm. I guess that was the effect killing somebody had on a person.  
"Nothing I can't take care of myself," I managed, sagging against the tree behind me. "How about you?"  
"The Front Lotus takes a lot out of me," he admitted. "But I am otherwise uninjured."  
"That's good," I mumbled.  
He nodded and held the scroll out to me. "We already have an Earth scroll."  
Somehow I actually managed a laugh, though it sounded slightly crazed even to myself. "We've got two already, we don't need a third."  
His arm faltered, my words giving him pause. He retracted his arm and tucked the scroll into his belt, looking like he wanted to say something but had no idea what. Man, I must have really looked like a complete disaster.  
From behind him, his teammates emerged from the bushes. "Lee, come on let's - " Tenten began before her eyes took in the blood smeared all over the ground. "Whoa. Looks like you used the Front Lotus."  
The two looked at me and seemed to put together at least a bit of what had happened. Neji didn't seem to give half a shit about how bad my condition was or the dead body sitting in the middle of the clearing, but Tenten had some amount of sympathy in her eyes as she stared at me. Lee looked from me back to his teammates, somewhat torn.  
"Go, I can handle myself," I said and tried for a smile.  
"You will be alright?"  
If my estimations were correct, Team 10 was only a minute or two away from where I was so long as they maintained their pace. "Yeah. I've got friends who are only a couple of minutes from here," I replied.  
"Alright." He turned and walked away.  
"Thank you," I called after him. "I'd be in a lot of trouble right now if you hadn't intervened."  
He faced me, gave me something at least close to his typical 'nice guy' pose, and went back to stand with his teammates.  
Tenten gave me one last look before she said, "Good luck."  
I nodded to her, leaning back against the tree, using it to help lower myself to the ground and turning my attention to the new damage I had acquired during the fight. I lifted my shirt and healed up the puncture wounds caused by the senbon I'd taken in the stomach. They weren't bad, nothing compared to the other wounds littered across my body.  
I did start to feel the effects of coming down from a soldier pill more seriously, though, and boy was that a bitch - thankfully I was prepared. Keiko had made a small… concoction for me that she said negated a decent amount of it. I slipped the cap off and let the contents burn down my throat. I cringed but grateful as I felt the shake in my bones began to ease, the fever began to fade, and some of the fatigue was washed away.  
I let out a ragged breath just as Team 10 emerged from the bush. They must have sensed that the fighting was over because there was no urgency in their movements as they entered the clearing. They broke through the bushes on my left, expecting a fight but finding they'd miss all of it. They all seemed to notice the body at the same time. Cho and Ino made squeaking type noises but Shika's mouth simply went into a grim line.  
"What did you do to him?" Shika asked.  
"Wasn't me," I said, rolling my head against the tree to look at them. "It was Lee."  
"Oh Kami, Kasumi, your look terrible!" Ino cried, her hand going over her mouth.  
Shika turned his gaze up to me, his face tightening, his eyes taking stock the injuries littering my body. "What happened?"  
"Are you asking about my face or the dead body?"  
"I assumed they would have the same story," he sighed. "Body first."  
"It's a… a long story," I managed. Man, I'd taken one too many hits to the head.  
He gave me a measured look, his face the most serious that I'd ever seen it, walking over to crouch down in front of me and looking straight into my eyes. The hell? I was going to say something when suddenly he raised his hand and snapped his fingers in front of my face. I blinked, the motion blurring.  
"Concussion," was all he muttered.  
"Uh-huh," I replied.  
"You can tell us what happened later, you should rest."  
"No, no," I protested. "I don't want to sleep yet anyways, I need to wait for the boys to wake up first."  
"Kas - "  
"Please, Shika."  
His expression reminded me of a parent dealing with a particularly difficult child. "Fine, but you're going to sleep right after."  
I relayed what happened, stumbling over some of my words, my eyes growing heavier the longer that I spoke. The ache in my ribs grew worse the more I spoke and I had to take a break halfway through just so I could get some pain medication into my system and dull the pain to a more manageable level. It didn't take me long to go over the whole thing, but I felt myself glancing over towards the caves every few words, waiting nervously.  
Knowing it was coming didn't make it any less of a shock to my system when I registered the sudden surge of chakra from the cave. I shoved myself up from the ground, moving as fast as I could towards the cave. There it was. Each second, I felt it swell larger, darker, more frightening. "Oh, shit," I muttered. "Shit, shit, shit."  
Ino, also chakra sensitive, must have felt it too because she moved in the direction of the cave. I held up a hand to keep her from getting any closer. "What was that?" she asked.  
The adrenaline that had started to fade from my body was now pumping full force all over again, bringing me a fresh wave of energy that I was going to take advantage of.  
"Just… stay back," I warned. "Please."  
The three of them looked between each other but none of them tried to move forward so I took that as an agreement.  
Even without my senses I could feel the corruption in his chakra from where I was standing, thick black tendrils writhing and curling through his signature.  
Sasuke emerged from the cave, tattoos blazing across his skin. In the show Sakura had hugged him, cried, and begged him to go back to normal. That wasn't me. I wasn't that type of person. Besides, that situation all around had been entirely different, and even if I did give that little routine a shot it probably wouldn't do me much good.  
"Sasuke," I said lowly. "I need you to calm down."  
His eyes met mine but it was like he wasn't even looking at me. "Kasumi."  
"There's something wrong with your chakra, you need to - " I started, but he cut me off.  
"You're hurt," he said, anger burning in his eyes.  
"Yes, I am hurt," I said, keeping my voice quiet enough that he was the only one who could hear me. "You saw Orochimaru send me off a branch."  
His eyes went unfocused, losing the train of thought. He glanced down at his hands. "I feel… different. Powerful."  
"I know," I murmured. "But you need to stop and listen to me."  
"If I had had this much power, you and Naruto wouldn't have gotten hurt."  
I didn't know what was going to happen at this point. Everything had gone so differently… I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to make him listen. Behind me, I could feel them starting to get a little nervous, taking a few steps closer than I'd like. Sasuke was in a volatile state right now and the last thing I needed him to do was hurt somebody without even knowing it.  
"Sasuke," I said, desperation tainting my words. "Please, I need you to stop using your chakra."  
"I've never felt as good as I feel right now."  
"Please," I urged him, my voice actually cracking. "You need to stop using it. I don't know what's happening with it but it's dark and wrong and…"  
Well, so much for not begging. His hands moved to my shoulders, gripping them painfully. Without even meaning to I wilted under the contact, a little whimper being yanked from my throat, tears springing to my eyes, spots dancing across my vision. Fuck, that hurt worse than actually shoving my arm back in its socket had. The damaged tissue was delicate and it felt like somebody had just taken a sledgehammer to my shoulder.  
"Let go… please…"  
Apparently my reaction seemed to do the trick. He looked at me, eyes refocusing, tattoos fading away, leaving nothing but his usual pale skin in its place. "Kasumi?"  
I let out a weak laugh, relieved that finally something had worked, even if it sent an entirely new wave of pain throbbing through my right side. "Yeah."  
"What happened?" he asked, looking as if he'd just woken up from a year long nap.  
"There's something messing around in your chakra," I explained. "I'm don't know what went down after I fell but… apparently it was nothing good."  
His expression shifted in recognition and he looked to his hands, finally noticing the heavy bandaging and yanking his arms back, guilt clouding his eyes. "Did I…"  
"You can't have made it any worse than it already was," I said. "Trust me."  
The guilt didn't go away, and he wouldn't meet my gaze, but I didn't think there was anything I could really say to fix that right now.  
He gave a jerky nod, turning a bit awkward, like he wasn't sure how to handle being in such close proximity to me. We'd never been very close, at least not in conventional terms. He'd refused to come with Naruto and I after training, and while we did chat before and during training, it wasn't typically more than bickering. We just had a habit of rubbing each other the wrong way much like how he was with Naruto minus the rivalry. In a fight I'd trust him to have my back any day of the week, regardless. But in comparison to most of our interactions this was an unusually friendly moment and he didn't seem to know what to do.  
He looked away from me, for the first time taking notice of just how much of a mess the area in front of the cave was. His eyes stuck on the body. "What the hell happened?"  
"Long story, you can ask them to tell it because I don't have the energy to say it again," I answered. When he nodded I turned around and went back to where the other three were standing. I was dead on my feet at this point and I just wanted to do one more thing before I conked out.  
Shika gave me a searching look before simply asking, "Everything good?"  
"As good as it can be," I muttered. "I need to do one more thing before I sleep."  
"What?"  
"I need somebody to set my arm."  
His lips curled down in distaste, but from his face I could tell that he knew how to do it. "Troublesome," he sighed, raking a hand through his hair. "Ino, can you get us two sticks that are about as long as Kas' arm?"  
"Y-yeah, got it," Ino answered, tearing her eyes off Sasuke and running off to grab the sticks from the forest.  
Shika helped me sit down and carefully unwound the bandages along the right side of my body. The more of my the damage he saw, the less happy he looked, but he held his silence, tossing the now dirt coated bandages off to the side. I couldn't bring myself to look at any of it again. I knew with how badly I'd gotten tossed around it would be worse than before and I'd barely been able to stomach all of it then.  
Ino returned with the sticks, handling the sight of twisted bones and purpled skin better than I expected.  
He gingerly held out my arm by the wrist to assess the damage and I bit my lip against the pain in my shoulder, closing my eyes. The pain in a dislocated shoulder didn't stop once you had it back in its place. It took months for the muscles, tendons, and ligaments to heal properly, leaving them in a tender state.  
Off to my right Sasuke was watching the entire process with unreadable eyes, finally seeing the worst of it. He probably hadn't seen what happened to me after I fell. When it was held in the sling, the break in my arm looked bad, but it was hard to see both breaks unless you were looking for them, partially masking the severity. I'd had my shoulder bandaged in a way that left practically none of the skin exposed which also effectively hid the worst of the injury. Now, though, it was all out on display, and man did it ever look bad.  
"Jeez, Kas," he murmured. "Who did this to you?"  
"A thirty metre fall from a tree branch," I muttered.  
His eyes snapped up to me. "Serious?" he asked. I nodded. "You should be dead."  
"I know."  
He sighed, carefully letting go of my arm so that it hung by my side and grabbed the tree branches. "Can you hold it up yourself?"  
"I don't think so."  
"Hey, Ino, can you come back here?" he called. "And bring something she can bite down on."  
"Yeah!"  
A couple of seconds later she was back over in front of us. She managed to give me a smile but it was clearly forced. I appreciated the effort, though, so I tried for one in return. Ino thankfully was also somewhat familiar with medical type things and knew how to hold my arm out for him. She handed me some of the bandages that Keiko had brought since there really wasn't anything else that was clean for me to stick in my mouth.  
Shika held the two sticks in front of him. "Ready?"  
I nodded. He waited for a second. I braced myself, waiting for the countdown -  
There was a wet cracking sound as the bones were suddenly forced back into their place. I slammed my good hand into the dirt, making a small crater, tears falling from my eyes. Despite the fact that I'd gone through the same pain only a month ago with my ankle that didn't make it hurt any less. I was shocked that I didn't pass out. My teeth clamped down on the bandages and I was thankful that Ino had given me as much of a cushion as she did. After a minute of ragged breathing I opened my eyes, watching as both Ino and Shika rewound bandages along the right side of my body.  
"Thanks," I managed.  
"Don't even mention it!" Ino said, pumping false cheer into her voice as well. "We'll get you good as new in no time, just you wait!"  
I let out a breathy laugh. "I'd be pretty screwed if you guys didn't find me. Same with Lee, actually."  
"Yeah, well, those explosions were hard to miss," Shika said. "And you're the only person I know who ever actually carries that many tags with them at once."  
"You could carry that many too if you'd let me teach you how to make them," I said, my tongue feeling like it was made of cotton. "Lazy."  
He spared me a smirk. "Why learn when I can just buy them or get you to make me some?"  
I laughed again, my eyes pulling themselves closed. I was exhausted. I tried to hold onto consciousness, but everything just felt so… heavy. There was nothing I could do. I felt somebody picking me up, hazily catching images of the tree's canopy as I slowly slipped away, finally giving into the fatigue and letting myself drift into the land of the dreamers.  
.-.-.  
Tires screeching. Bright light, earbuds being torn from my ears.  
The snow… how cold it is.  
I shot upwards, eyes wide, a scream crawling up my throat. A hand shot out and covered my mouth and I instinctively pushed myself away, my heart ramming in my chest, smacking back against a cold wall with a wince.  
"Hey, it's alright." Shika raised his hands up in front of him in a complacent manner. "Just me."  
I closed my eyes, running my hand over my face, ignoring the tears pooling in the corner of my eyes. God, that nightmare was never going to stop sucking. I winced a little, adjusting myself - my ribs and shoulder were not happy at being jolted around like that.  
"Sorry," I murmured.  
"Don't be," he said. "It's not like you can help it."  
Wanting to change the subject I mumbled, "How long was I out?"  
"More than four hours and less than six," he said. "We've been poking you awake every couple of hours just to make sure you're not in a coma, but I'm not keeping track of exact times."  
Oh, yeah. Concussion.  
"Wait… no offence, but why are you guys even still here?" I asked. "Shouldn't you be getting your second scroll?"  
"We have a Heaven scroll. Naruto offered us the second Earth scroll you guys have, so we figured we might as well just stick around and wait to go with you guys."  
"Oh." Well, maybe it wasn't all bad that I'd ended up running into that team of Oto shinobi after all. I winced at that memory, shoving it back out of my mind. "That's… nice."  
"Yeah."  
I blinked some of the sleep from my eyes and started to look around, noticing that somebody had moved me into the cave. At least Naruto was awake. I stretched out my senses and realized that I could only feel Shika, Naruto, and Ino.  
"Where are Cho and Sasuke?" I asked.  
"Scouting," he replied. He was sitting back against the wall of the cave, stick in hand and doodling in the dirt at his feet. "They wanted to get an idea of where we were so that when we started moving we'd be going in the right direction."  
"Why didn't you guys just go to the tower while I was out?" I asked. "It can't be more than a couple of hours walk from here."  
"None of us wanted to try and move you. Your back's pretty bad from what Ino said, you needed to sleep off some of that concussion, and with your shoulder injured still we figured it was best to wait until you could walk there yourself."  
That made sense.  
I rubbed my face again, wincing as my hand roamed over raw skin. I pushed myself onto my feet, shakily making my way over to where the little basket was sitting. I could feel Shika's eyes on me as I bent down, grabbing the mirror from the basket and holding it up to my face with a grimace.  
The biggest things that stood out to me were the three long, deep cuts streaking down my face. One just below my eye to my ear, one spanning across the right side of my forehead, and a third reaching from the bottom of my chin, over my lips, and then right to underneath my nose. I raised my hand to my face, healing away the damage that I could. I also realized that at some point or another I'd lost my hair elastic, sending my hair tumbling out of the ponytail that I'd had it in.  
Now I was definitely glad that the fight with Team Dosu had gone differently in the way that it did - I would have been crushed if I was forced to cut my hair like that.  
It took fifteen minutes and more chakra than I'd like to admit but the three cuts had faded away into like markings that would hopefully end up clearing away on their own. It was hard to get a good look at my back with the mirror, but it seemed Ino was right. Given how many times I was smacked against a tree by Zaku and Kin exploding one I was using as cover, the majority of the new injuries I'd gotten fighting them were on my back. I couldn't see bandaging, though, so I guess it wasn't horribly damaged. There were a few new bruises on my legs, courtesy of my crash landing on Dosu, but nothing else that worried me enough to waste chakra on them.  
I dropped the mirror back in the basket and grabbed the bottle of aspirin, knocking down a couple of the pills with a sip of water. That was everything I wanted to do for now. I looked back over at Shika who was occupying himself doodling pictures of the scrolls in the dirt. He glanced up, giving me a bit of a once-over.  
"You look less like my dad now," he said with a smirk.  
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever." The closer I got to the entrance of the cave the louder Naruto's voice got. I took a step out, unable to stop myself from smiling at how completely and utterly worn out Ino looked. "I can't believe you left her out here with him."  
Shika moved to stand beside me. "He hasn't been too bad. That or I'm just way too used to him."  
From here, I could see the difference in his chakra. It didn't hold its usual ridiculous levels of activity; still spiking and vibrant, just to a lesser degree than I was used to seeing. As I took a couple of steps towards them Ino's face lit up and she pointed towards me, probably glad to finally have somebody to push the little blond on.  
Naruto looked over at me and his face grew a grin that had my chest blossoming with warmth. He hopped up off the ground, practically bouncing over towards me. I braced myself for a bearhug but he stopped short of where I was standing, as if reminding himself that I was injured and he couldn't throw himself on me.  
"Kasu!" he cheered, shuffling on his feet.  
I laughed, leaning forward to wrap my good arm around his upper body. He didn't move, as if afraid that if he touched me I'd break. "Hey!"  
"How you feelin'?"  
"Better than yesterday," I said. "How 'bout you?"  
"What kind of a question is that, I'm awesome!"  
I snorted. "'Course you are, how dare I even ask such a question."  
We went over to where Ino was sitting, chatting for a little bit. I let it wash over me, grateful to have something on my mind other than Orochimaru and being attacked. They'd cleaned up the area a little while I was out, picking up the stray senbon and stashing Zaku's body somewhere out of sight. They'd covered the blood up with dirt and the only true proof I could see of the fight was the obliterated tree that Kin had blown up.  
The boys returned half an hour later, Sasuke saying that he'd managed to get a visual of the tower from atop one of the trees. We'd ended up being close to 7km off of the tower, which was further out than I thought we'd be but I couldn't see it taking us more than an hour and a half to walk there, so long as we didn't get stopped on the way.  
The other upside to them waiting until I was conscious was that I could point out when there were enemies getting close. Not that many would want to mess with two genin teams working together, but still, I made sure to alert them of anything I could feel out, specifically avoiding a signature that I recognized as Kabuto's. He was the last thing I needed right now.  
We took a slower pace than I would have liked, arriving at the base of the tower after two hours of walking. There were a couple of clusters of chakra signatures waiting by the entrance, hoping to ambush unsuspecting teams, one of which was the Taki team we'd gotten our first Earth scroll from. They gave us a wide berth, though, knowing better than to try and ambush in a situation where they'd be so vastly outnumbered.  
We entered the tower, the door swinging shut behind us with a solid thud. The bottom floor was one big room, balconies lining the side and two massive scrolls hanging along the back end of the wall, covered in writing.  
"If qualities of Heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If Earthly qualities are what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack," I intoned emotionlessly. "If Heaven and Earth are opened together the perilous path will be righteous forever. This… something is the secret way that guides us from this place today."  
"What the hell does that mean?" Naruto muttered.  
I shrugged my good shoulder. "It seems pretty self explanatory. Heaven and Earth are the scrolls, and it's telling us to open them both together."  
"I thought we weren't supposed to open them," Cho said. "That lady said we didn't want to know what would happen if we did."  
"She said we couldn't open them before the tower," Shika cut in, shifting his eyes to me. "Right Kas?"  
"I wasn't listening."  
"Troublesome," he muttered.  
"I remember her saying that as well," Sasuke said.  
"What do we have to lose?" Naruto said. "Just open them!"  
"We have to be sure, idiot," Ino cried. "If we do it too early then we'll all be disqualified!"  
"We don't have to remember, it's telling us to," I countered. "What else could that mean?"  
Sasuke's face shifted, an idea of some kind. "Kasumi, didn't you say that you could sense some kind of chakra on the scrolls?"  
I dipped my head in a nod. "Yeah. It's dormant, I think it's a seal of some kind."  
"Can you tell what kind?"  
I pursed my lips together. Obviously, I knew exactly what was in there, a summoning seal for Iruka-sensei. I had no way to justify how I knew that though, so to stay on the safe side, I said, "Not a clue."  
"Might as well just open it and find out," Naruto said, impatient as ever.  
The boys exchanged glances and silently came to a decision together.  
"On three?" Sasuke asked.  
Naruto nodded and together they flipped open the scrolls.  
"Hey is that - "  
Sasuke smacked the scroll out of Naruto's hand before tossing his own just in time for Iruka-sensei to appear in a puff of smoke. Ino and Choji did the same thing with their scrolls and in a flash another man appeared beside Iruka-sensei, looking like he'd rather be doing anything else.  
"Hey, kids, how's it going?" he asked cheerily, his eyes going between all of us and halting on me, taking in my tattered everything. "You look like you've had… an interesting time."  
"Interesting," I said. "Sure, let's go with that."  
The other guy, a chunin, also gave me a thorough look. "Yikes, kid."  
I threw him an unamused frown. "I still have one good arm, ya know."  
He held up his hands but grinned nonetheless, unfazed by my not so thinly veiled threat. "Chill, just messing around with you."  
"I've got this, if you want to go back," Iruka-sensei said. "No point in both of us being here."  
He gave Iruka-sensei the same two-fingered salute I'd seen Kakashi-sensei use before he disappeared again in another puff of smoke.  
"Wait, wait! Iruka-sensei, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.  
"Chunin are tasked with the job of welcoming back all the genin after they pass the second test," he said. His eyes took on a mischievous glint. "Or knocking them out if they opened the scrolls too early."  
"That's what Anko meant 'by you don't want to know'," I muttered. "Nice."  
Shika gave me a look. "I thought you weren't listening?"  
I blinked at him. "Huh?"  
"We passed!" Naruto cheered, stopping the conversation there as he pumped his fist in the air. "Yeah!"  
Sasuke rolled his eyes but he was smiling too. "Obviously, dobe."  
"I still have a speech to give!" Iruka-sensei cried.  
He gave his little speech, talking about what the test was looking for, nothing that was crucial. I leant into whoever was standing beside me. Given the stiffness I was met with, it was probably Sasuke, but I didn't have enough energy in me to care. Five hours of sleep wasn't enough to completely satiate the strain of being awake and fighting for as long as I had. I felt my eyes falling shut but I forced them open, staring forward, focusing on Iruka-sensei's mouth moving, watching him speak without listening to the words he was saying.  
Sasuke nudged me and I started.  
"Kasumi?" Iruka-sensei asked.  
"Sorry, what is it sensei?"  
He frowned at me. "Due to the severity of your injuries I'm required to send a medic-nin to check over your injuries to ensure that none of them are fatal. Should they find anything they believe to be a serious danger to your life you will be removed from the exam, otherwise they won't administer any treatment and you'll have to wait until the end of the testing period before anything can be done about your injuries."  
"I can already tell you while these injuries are a pain in the ass, they're not fatal."  
"It's part of my duty. We like to try and limit the amount of fatalities during exams."  
I sighed. "Alright, alright. I just hope it doesn't take too long, I need to sleep."  
"You kids wait here, I'll escort her to the medical room and then come back to show you where you'll be staying."  
It was a short walk over to the room and Iruka-sensei kept a close eye on me, watching with a disapproving frown at the stumble in my step. He opened the door to the room and ushered me inside with a gentle hand on my good shoulder. When he was sure I wasn't going to pass out before somebody could come in here and check me out he went off to go and show everybody else where they'd be sleeping.  
I sat on the edge of the bed, dangling my feet over the edge and knocking my ankles against the cool white wood. It was only a minute before the door swung open again, a young man holding a clipboard strolling in, flipping through the papers.  
"Kasumi Himura. Only two prior hospitalizations, one when you were four due to severe chakra exhaustion and one only a month ago post-mission with a severely damaged ankle," he rattled off and raised his eyes expectantly.  
"That's correct," I said.  
"What are your current injuries?"  
"Concussion, I don't know how severe. Arm fractured in two places. Dislocated shoulder, though I've gotten it back in the socket already. Fractured ribs, no clue how badly, I just know they're fractured. Minor bruising and lacerations on my back but again, I have no idea how severe but it's certainly not life threatening."  
He nodded. "I'll check out the concussion, though given you sound coherent and you're maintaining steady eye contact it's probably minor. I mean, if I were you I'd probably bow out, but since none of that's fatal I can't force you to do anything," he said. "I'll just do a couple minor checks then you can go get some sleep."  
He checked me out with a stethoscope, tested my pulse on my wrist, and then flashed a light in my eyes, watching how my pupils reacted as I followed it. He didn't look happy but it was like he said, I wasn't at risk of dying from any of these injuries so they couldn't forcibly remove me from the exam.  
Iruka-sensei returned as he was finishing up, leaning against the doorway with his arms across his chest.  
"What's her status?" he asked.  
"Clear," the medic-nin answered.  
Iruka-sensei sighed, clearly hoping for a different answer, then motioned towards me. "I'll show you where you're sleeping."  
"Wait!" I said. "Is there anyway I can get something to change into? These clothes are destroyed."  
"Sorry, no can do," the medic-nin replied. "That's considered aid."  
"You mean I'm stuck in sweaty, dirty, torn, blood-stained clothes for the next five days?" I groaned.  
The guy grinned at me. "Shoulda thought ahead."  
"Fucking bullshit," I muttered.  
I hopped down and walked towards Iruka-sensei who gave the medic-nin a wave before leading me in the direction of the sleeping quarters. He was quite, his lips drawn in a thin line and rubbing the scar across his nose tiredly.  
"It looks worse than it is," I said as we walked. "Trust me."  
He wasn't convinced. "You're the worst looking of anybody to come in so far."  
"We weren't the first?"  
"No. There's been a Team 8, a Sunagakure team, and a team from Kusagakure."  
My step faltered. Kusa? My mind went to Orochimaru immediately. Originally, Team Dosu had made it through, but with Zaku being killed they would have been disqualified.  
Iruka-sensei stopped, looking back at me, giving me something of an analytic look, carefully put together. A nagging feeling in my stomach told me that he at least had some idea that there was something going on. "Something wrong?"  
"No, uh, nothing," I rasped, hurrying to catch up to him. "Sorry."  
He nodded but seemed to be watching me more carefully as he led me through the halls. By this point, Anko would have found the bodies of the dead Grass-nin on the borders, meaning that they at least knew something was going on. Originally the team he was posing at hadn't made it into the finals but maybe this was the replacement for Team Dosu not making it.  
There had been another team from Kusa who had made it into the second test. I'd just have to hope that they'd been the ones to make it through.  
I could hear the chatter coming from one of the rooms as I entered the corridor that had been assigned to the genin as sleeping quarters. It sounded like the Rookie 9 had congregated into one room and were trading off stories. Kiba's voice was bouncing through the halls as I walked in and opened the door, peering in curiously.  
The room grew silent.  
"Holy hell," Kiba said. "You do look awful."  
I was too unnerved to come up with any kind of retaliatory quip.  
"What's wrong?" Shika asked, reading my expression with ease.  
I didn't look to him, instead locking eyes with Sasuke. "Did they tell you that a Kusa team made it through?"  
His expression tightened and his hands tightened into fists. "No."  
Naruto's eyes grew wide, letting out a little breath. Everybody else in the room exchanged confused glances. We hadn't had a chance to explain what had happened with Orochimaru to anybody yet. It was mostly up to Naruto or Sasuke, given that I'd been laying on the ground unconscious for the majority of the encounter.  
"Yeah, we saw the Kusa team earlier," Kiba spoke up. "What's the big deal, they looked harmless."  
My gaze darted over to him. "What did they look like?" I asked urgently.  
I couldn't sense any of their signatures, but I was beginning to wonder if that had something to do with the building we were in, given that I was struggling to get my bearings using my chakra senses on anything outside of the room. That or I was just too tired to focus properly.  
He scratched his chin. "Two guys and a girl. The guys were wearing these weird brown robe-thingies, one had hair that's shoulder length and the other pretty short. The girl had long blonde hair, wears it in a ponytail kind of like Ino's."  
My entire body relaxed and I could see Sasuke and Naruto's postures ease. I moved over to one of the beds, sitting down on its edge heavily, shoulders sagging. It wasn't them, unless Orochimaru had decided to switch faces again. I knew he posed as the jonin-sensei for Team Dosu during the preliminaries, so it was a possibility, but I was going to just hope that they'd fled for now for my sanity's sake - the last thing I wanted to do was brush elbows with him while we were stuck here waiting for the test to end.  
"What's the big deal?" Kiba asked. His eyes roamed over my upper body. "Were they the ones who kicked your ass?"  
"You could say that," I murmured.  
"You never told us what happened," Ino pointed out. "Before we found you."  
She was right, I hadn't. It wasn't a story I was eager to tell, though I'd been in no position to launch into any kind of great tale when they had found me regardless. I jerked my head towards the boys, regretting it some as I felt everything sway beneath me. "Ask them, I wasn't conscious for most of it."  
I lay on my back, staring up at the bottom of the bunk above me - I didn't know whose bed I was on, but I didn't particularly care either.  
It took a little bit more prodding until Naruto broke, spilling the entire story of the fight, starting from the giant tornado destroying our camp up until when Orochimaru sealed up the Kyuubi chakra, though he used different wording than that. Sasuke piped in on occasion to correct any mistakes or embellishments Naruto made, but otherwise he sat there, stony faced, staring down at the ground.  
"The snake guy did something weird to my chakra, and I passed out," Naruto finished. "When I woke up Kasu had already moved the camp and Team 10 was there too."  
"Have you guys told anybody?" Kiba asked.  
"I think they know," I said.  
He scoffed. "No way would they let the exams continue with somebody like that running around."  
"You sure about that?" I countered. "If they stop the exams now, how does that look? These things are as much about the village politics as they are about which one of us gets promoted. If they stop the exams, it makes them look weak, like they're so incapable of taking care of their own village and its issues that it only takes one missing-nin to interrupt such a massive event."  
"They wouldn't just let a guy like this go around hurting people though," he said, though his voice was decidedly unsure. "Right?"  
"I mean, it's not like any of us are dead," I muttered.  
I swear both the boys flinched. The words were a bit careless, given that a fall like mine probably should have killed me, but I couldn't find it in me to care.  
"Orochimaru, huh?" Shika finally said, his hands in their thinking pose, vaguely intrigued. "That name… I've heard it before."  
"He's an S-rank missing-nin from Konoha," I said quietly.  
"Wait, you know him?" Sasuke demanded. "Why didn't you say anything?"  
"He's in our bingo book," I said sourly. "I didn't say anything because there hasn't exactly been a chance to yet. I went down as soon as he told us who he was and we haven't talked about it since."  
"You have a bingo book?" Shika asked. "They only give those to chunin."  
"I don't have one, I've just read one."  
"S-rank missing-nin…" Kiba breathed. "No offense, but what the hell is he doing messing around with a few genin?"  
I didn't say anything. I could tell, from the heavy silence, that they were waiting for some kind of reply, an offering of information, but I just… couldn't give them anything. It was a bitter feeling that settled in my chest like a rock. This was such a fine line to walk. I hated the feeling of holding back information for the sheer fact that I shouldn't even have it to start with.  
After an eternity, Sasuke was the one who broke the silence. "He said he wanted me."  
I closed my eyes.  
There was an awkward silence before the topic shifted. I filtered it out, wrapped up in my own thoughts. That feeling in my chest didn't ease any. I didn't think it ever would as I'd never stop being presented with opportunities where I had information I shouldn't.  
This information, it just felt wrong.  
Part of me wanted to use it. Save others the heartache I knew they would endure. There was so much I could do with it and that absolutely terrified me, partially why I held myself back from acting on this knowledge. My job wasn't to play God.  
What if I did act on the information, and instead of aiding those around me, it hurt them? What if the bad situation I wanted to prevent was simply the kinder alternative to an even worse situation? What if by saving one life, I ended thousands? This series of events I knew would unfold held pain but at the end of the day, most of the journeys ended in seemingly happy endings.  
What if this world was set for a more destructive future, and I was sent to lead it onto the more merciful path? Or, did that, ultimately, count as playing God?  
I bit back a rueful laugh.  
Wanting to distract myself I sat up, tossing my legs over the side of the bed. "I'm going to take a shower."  
"I'll show you where it is," Kiba offered, standing up from his spot on the ground and pointing me towards a small bathroom. It was only just down the hall, something I probably would have been able to find on my own, but I appreciated the gesture, giving him a small smile in thanks.  
There were three separate rooms for girls, another three rooms for boys. At least I'd get some privacy. I walked into the nearest room, closing the door behind me. There were some small bags lined up on the counter, each containing a small tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, and enough shampoo to last a couple of showers. A surprising gesture for shinobi.  
I tried to comb out my hair but didn't have much luck, too much dirt and blood dried into clumps that I couldn't tease out. I brushed my teeth at least. Looking in this mirror, the marks on my face seemed distinctly more prominent, the artificial lighting bringing attention to it in a way that had me scowling. I'd have to try and heal those up more cleanly after I was done showering.  
It wasn't until I turned on the water and went to undress that I finally encountered a major problem, one that I had already been struck with - I couldn't get my shirt over my head without ripping it entirely. It's odd, that such a thing was what sent me over the edge, the straw that finally broke the camel's back.  
Something snapped inside me as I stood there, fruitlessly contorting my body in an attempt to get what scraps were left of the shirt off of my torso. I just started crying. It started light, a few frustrated tears burning in my eyes.  
I'd killed three people. I'd been attacked by somebody who was so out of my league that I literally could not comprehend their level of power. I'd been attacked again, forced to defend my teammates, my friends, in a situation where I was badly injured and had practically nothing left to fight with. I'd had a persistent headache banging against my skull for more hours than I could even count. I'd been in pain, an ache only dulled by pain meds, for just as long. Yet, I didn't break. I kept myself together.  
Now, though, standing in front of the mirror, staring at my tattered reflection, I broke down sobbing.  
I sunk against the wall, my back hunching over as cried, my entire body racked with the emotions as they bubbled over. I just sat there and cried. And cried. And cried. Pent up feelings and exhaustion finally getting a chance to be properly expressed. I sat there, legs splayed out in front of me, back pressed against the wall, hand covering my mouth in a fruitless attempt to muffle some of the noise.  
After a while, somebody cracked open the door, settling down on the ground beside me. I didn't hesitate to curl into their side and bury my face in their shoulder, not even bothering to check who it was, though I had a fairly good idea. They wound a hesitant arm around my back, a hug made awkward by how few places I could be touched right now without causing pain.  
Eventually, I cried myself out, probably due to dehydration over anything else, the racking sobs devolving into light sniffles.  
"Sorry," I finally mumbled. "I think I ruined your shirt."  
Shika let out a sigh. "You really oughta stop apologizing for these kinds of things."  
"I ruined your shirt."  
"I packed others."  
"Am I the only one who didn't think to pack extra clothes?"  
"Probably."  
"That's what got me going, you know," I admitted. "I don't have another shirt to use and I'm pretty sure I have to rip this one before it's going to come off."  
He snorted. "I'm sure if you asked somebody would have lent you a shirt."  
"I never said it was a rational reason for crying."  
"Few things are ever rational with you," he said, but his tone was entirely teasing.  
I whapped him on the arm gently. "Fuck off."  
"Still not intimidating."  
A watery laugh burst from my mouth, my head shaking.  
There were a few minutes of silence. He didn't move, allowing me to sit there and take comfort in his presence for as long as I needed. I allowed myself some amount of a selfish respite before I pulled away, bringing my knees as close to my chest as I could without crushing my arm. He shuffled around a bit, aiming to move back into the room with the others.  
I don't know what made me do it, but just as he was about to leave I blurted out, "I killed three people."  
Naruto had offered to talk about it before, but it was too fresh then, my mind not really having fully processed what had happened.  
His entire body froze, hand covering the doorknob. Carefully, he let go of it, sitting back down beside me and glanced at me with an odd expression. I couldn't read it entirely, but I cared more about what I wasn't seeing - judgement, unease, disgust. We were shinobi. Fresh, young shinobi, but shinobi all the same. Our job was to kill people, you couldn't judge your comrades for it, especially when done in self defense. That didn't stop you from judging yourself though.  
"Naruto and Sasuke were at the camp, and I went off to get us dinner. I was the fastest and had the best hunting skills, but I could also keep tabs on what was happening back at the camp in a way that neither of the boys could," I said in a detached tone, eyes staring forward. "I was too busy watching the boys camp to pay enough attention to what was going on around me. A team of Oto shinobi surrounded me, erecting a barrier to keep me contained."  
I heard a sharp intake of air. I don't know what possessed me to even tell him the first place, and I just kept going, the words tumbling out of my mouth.  
"The area was too small for me to use taijutsu, not to mention it was three of them against only one of me. Even if I had ninjutsu to use there wasn't enough room for any of them to be used properly. I was… I didn't have anything else to do except use my poisons. I had a few of the bigger tags on me that had big enough doses to actually take out three people at once. I could have just knocked them out. I three separate tags on me that would have just knocked them out. I also had one tag that was lethal in even the smallest doses."  
"That was the one you used," he said. "They had no way to escape, turning what was their greatest advantage into their greatest disadvantage."  
Thankfully, he didn't comment on the sheer recklessness of using a lethal poison while I was incapable of getting away from it.  
"Yeah," I replied softly. "I just… was that the right choice? To immediately resort to lethal force?"  
"I can't answer that for you."  
"Is it what you would have done?" I asked. He face shifted, and suddenly I felt a rush of guilt for putting him on the spot like this. These were my problems not his. "Sorry. Just forget about it - "  
"I would have," he said, cutting off the rest of my sentence. "If I was you in that situation, I would have used lethal force."  
The answer brought me some amount of grim comfort and I let my eyes shut, my head falling over onto his shoulder. "The worst part about it? I don't even feel bad," I said, my voice now barely even above a whisper. "Even though I could have gone just used one of the other tags, I don't feel bad about it."  
He didn't have a reply for me this time, instead just shifting his head so it rested atop mine. This was exhausting. I have no idea how long we sat there. Time ticked by in an odd manner when you were lost in thought. Eventually, I stood, and Shika did the same.  
"You good?"  
"Yeah," I said. "Thanks."  
"'Course," he replied.  
That still left the little problem I had with not being able to get my top off, and that I was going to need help slipping something on afterwards too. I felt weird about doing it, but as he was leaving I asked, "Can you… uh… send Ino in?"  
He looked surprised until something clicked in his head and it shifted to understanding. "Yeah, sure."  
Ino was a good sport about it. She tried her best to get it off, but after five or so minutes I told her to just rip it. She promised that I could borrow one of the extra shirts she'd packed and I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was a bit much for me. Stepping into the shower felt like a heaven sent. It was a few minutes before the water spilling into the drain was clear, most of the dried blood and dirt washed off my body.  
After I had finished, she came back in and helped me change the bandages over my shoulder and arm, easing me into a shirt that Naruto had donated afterwards. I had no idea what I'd have done without her. I'm sure Hinata would have been willing to help as well… but that would have just been uncomfortable as I hadn't really talked to her aside from passing remarks since the Academy. Ino, at least, had this odd way of putting me at ease as she did it, chatting happily the whole way through as if she did this everyday. Instead of going back to where they were all gathered I'd gone into one of the empty rooms, curling up in the bed, grateful to finally have a chance to fully assuage the exhaustion I'd had hanging over my head for days.  
.-.-.  
The day of the preliminaries came in a flash. At the end of it, Team 8, Team 10, Team Guy, the Sand siblings, Kabuto's team, and the team from Kusa passed the test. After a quick chance to eat breakfast they corralled us all together and led us into one of the lower levels of the tower, where the preliminaries were going to take place.  
The first thing I noticed when we entered the room where the preliminaries were taking place was the pungent mass of chakra that had my back going rigid. Orochimaru. It was another one of those cases where, despite knowing he was going to be there, the discomfort I felt at being in the presence of his chakra signature provoked a physical reaction from me, setting every one of my instincts into overdrive. I tried to ignore it, forcing myself to keep moving at an even pace, don't look directly at him, trying to see everything but him.  
All the jonin-sensei were lined up behind the stage where the Hokage was standing. My eyes passed over them, from Kakashi-sensei to Asuma-sensei to Kurenai-sensei to no don't look at him keep your eyes moving to the jonin-sensei for the Sand siblings and ended on the jonin-sensei for the Kusa team. They all cast us appraising looks as we walked through the doors, probably weeding out who they thought would make it through to the final tournament.  
Anko stood on the ground in front of the platform. "Congratulations to all of you for actually making it through the second exam. It's not over yet, though. Pay attention and Hokage-sama is going to explain the third part of the exam."  
He gave her a nod, taking his pipe out of his mouth with a small puff of smoke. I couldn't be bothered to listen to the extended speech he was going to give. It really only went over the basic rules of the tournament, the meaning of the exam itself, how it gathered all of the villages in the twisted idea of a token of friendship that could only be appreciated by shinobi. The warning that we could be killed during the tournament was something had long lost its edge, especially given the fact that the part of the test we'd just finished took place in 'The Forest of Death'.  
I began listening again when a shinobi landed on the platform, kneeling in front of the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, if you would, I'd like explain the details of the third exam as its proctor."  
The old man dipped a head. "By all means."  
"I am Hayate Gekko," the man introduced, his voice holding the rasp of someone who was either sick or smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. "And before we go too far into the details of the third exam, we must hold preliminary testing."  
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked.  
The man let out a cough. "Well, this is the first time in years we've had this many candidates make it this far. Be it the first and second tests were too easy or there was an especially strong group of genin entered, it does not matter. Before we move forward we must hold a set of matches to halve the amount of people who will be allowed to move onto the third test. There are a high amount of dignitaries who watch the exams, and they are here only to see the best. It is not in our best interest to leave them bored. So, before we start, if there are any of you who are not in top physical condition this is the only chance you'll get to bow out."  
I could feel every eye move over to me. I wasn't in top physical condition but that wasn't going to stop me. I kept my face impassive. I didn't go through all this bullshit just to quit right before the end - if I was going to go out, I'd do it fighting.  
Kabuto made a little noise off to the side, raising his hand. "I'm out."  
"What?" Naruto cried. "Kabuto come on, you can't just quit now!"  
"I'm too beat up," he said. "There's no way I'm going to be able to do it."  
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. What a load of shit that was. I could see from here that he was in perfect physical condition, not a single disruption in his chakra that'd leave me to believe he was injured during the second test.  
There was another short pause to allow for anybody else to try and leave. After that, Hayate shrugged, continuing on. "Alright then, all of you are in it for the long haul now. There's 20 of you left, leaving us with an even 10 matches. Those winners of those will be allowed to move onto the final part of the exam. There are no rules to the fight. The fights are to the death or until one competitor is physically incapable of continuing the match. It's encouraged that those who are losing simply concede rather than draw it out. As proctor, I am also given some amount of power in judging when I deem a match hopeless and stepping in to save as many lives as possible. The matchups for the round are all random and the names of the two fighters will be displayed on the screen behind me. In a few moments, the first matchup will appear, and everybody except the two fighters will be removed from the stage."  
The tension in the air was palpable. Everybody was beginning to gear up to the idea of fighting, limbering up and sizing up their opponents. I moved my gaze to Sasuke and watched him shift from foot to foot, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. He was supposed to be up first against one of the shinobi from Kabuto's team. It was an interesting matchup given that Sasuke couldn't use his Sharingan.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the screen light up, and was torn between annoyance and surprise at what popped up on it.  
Kasumi Himura vs. Eito Arakida  
I let out a sigh. Of course, I was going to go first.  
The name wasn't familiar, leading me to believe he was either one on the Kusa team or Suna team. The weight of fifty sets of eyes was heavy on my shoulders as I stood there, watching everybody file away from the floor to give us room to work.  
Kakashi-sensei moved past me, dropping a hand on my good shoulder. "Just try not to break anything else, kid."  
"Thanks for the words of encouragement," I muttered back.  
What a pep talk that was.  
I moved back towards one of the ends of the arena, turning to face the boy with clear eyes.  
He was one of the Grass-nin. No weapons that stood out from where I was standing. Kusa was mostly a mix of wind and earth jutsu, leaning more towards the latter. He was taller than me, not a huge feat, though he had a thin and agile frame, meaning he could be fast enough to react when I was fighting. Kusa was also known for using poisons, putting me at something of a disadvantage in this fight overall.  
It felt like the odds were stacked against me until he opened his fucking mouth.  
"Don't worry lil gal, I'll go easy on you," he said, swinging a kunai on his index finger as he smirked down at me. "I'll even make it as painless as possible, not that you'll make it more than a couple of hits from me."  
Oh, this I could work with. I had a nasty idea forming in my head. Should this fight be even remotely drawn out, I was going to be at the disadvantage. He was expecting me to just roll over and take this defeat.  
I cast a glance out into the balcony of the arena curiously. A few of the chunin were chatting amongst themselves, having already written this off as a defeat for me. Eito's teammates were smirking at each other along with their jonin-sensei. The Sand siblings were staring around, not even remotely paying attention, the other Suna team following their example.  
There was something about being so completely and utterly ignored as a capable shinobi that set a fire under my ass like nothing else. I may have been injured, but people got injured when they were fighting constantly, and that didn't instantly lead to their defeat. I was at a disadvantage but in no way, shape, or form was I down and out. Not now. Not when I found myself staring indignantly up at the room around me and I had a fucking point to prove.  
Kakashi-sensei was watching me carefully. I met his eyes and as if he could sense the plan blossoming in my mind he lifted up his hitae-ate, shaking his head but I could see the crinkle by his eye that gave away the smirk. Naruto gave me a wild grin and a thumbs up. Sasuke simply nodded, a smirk on his face. Shika and Cho both smiled down at me, and while I couldn't discern what Cho was shouting, I knew that they'd be words of encouragement. That was all I needed. No matter what, there were a few people in this room who knew me and believed in me.  
I blatantly ignored the chakra of Orochimaru, knowing that if I was going to be able to pull off this little stunt I couldn't have an inch of nerves and hesitation in me. I'd get one chance, and it was either going to get me seriously injured or it was going to get me a one hit knockout.  
Hayate stood in between us. He gave us each a nod and said, "Begin."  
The boy grinned at me, sharp and arrogant. "Normally, I'd say ladies first, but… I'm in no mood to be a gentleman today."  
I said nothing. I took a noticeably loose, forcibly shaky defensive stance, straight up daring him to bull charge me. He spun the kunai around so that he held the hilt firmly, positioning the kunai in front of him as he ran at me, barely going fast enough to count as a run. Hook, line, and sinker.  
In every fight I'd ever entered, my enemy saw me as one thing: a little girl.  
Most of the time I couldn't care less because if that's all they thought I was then it made my job easier when I needed to kick their ass. Over time, though, it had begun to grind on my nerves. I couldn't recall the last time somebody other than my friends fought me in a way where I was viewed as even potentially being their equal. I was always just the weak little girl who should go back to playing dress-up.  
That was going to end today.  
I didn't want to become chunin because I cared about being a team leader. Being able to go on harder missions wasn't anything I was terribly bothered by, the pay not something that mattered to me right now. Hell, even having a higher clearance in the library wasn't the kind of thing to push me into wanting the promotion. For the longest time I saw the chunin exams as just another bump in the road of life.  
Only now was I really starting to crave the promotion for the sheer idea that it might finally make people stop and consider that I am a capable shinobi. That I can do this. I wanted people to recognize that I'd worked hard for everything that I've accomplished so far in my life. I've fought for this. I wanted this. Damn it, I was going to see it through.  
The boy got closer. I started doing on the fly calculations, gauging his movement speed, how far I was going to have to move if I was going to get out of the way, figuring out how much momentum he currently had going with his steps. I wasn't fazed. He hadn't even considered that I could have something else planned for him.  
He was closer and closer and closer and then he was in front of me and I was a flurry of motion. I was going to need a clear shot at his side. The target was smaller, and less desirable than a back or front, but it was all I was going to be able to work with. Hitting in the front was a problem due to the kunai and that it'd take many movements, too much time for him to react, for me to disarm him and then get my blow in. The back was much the same. If I went for a blow there, I had no quick route. Flipping over was slow in comparison to my other options and if I dodged to the side and allowed him enough time to move in front of me that was risking him turning on me before I could get this accomplished.  
Instead, I dodged slightly back and to the left. The back motion accounted for the fact that regardless of how he reacted, his momentum was going to carry him forward. The side got me out of the way of his kunai while opening up the target I needed. In half a second, I was out of his path and he was directly in mine.  
I dumped nearly half my reserves into my left leg. I gave a small hop. In a snap of the hips my leg shot out, catching him before he could even realise that I had moved.  
The sound of my leg connecting with his ribs boomed like thunder clapping in a storm. He bent beneath the force of the blow, his spine snapping and his ribs crushing on impact. He was sent flying into the side of the arena, the concrete surface of it crumbling and sending bits of rock and dust raining on the boy's prone body as he bounced off its surface, landing in a heap on the ground.  
I stood there, my leg raised, steam and chakra curling off my foot.  
Using chakra consciously to strengthen your blows was something we were introduced to in the Academy but were warned was dangerous and not something we should try. All shinobi used it to power their movements without thinking, to some extent. Adding more was something that took high levels of control because chakra was dangerous and volatile, even when you were using your own chakra on your own body. If you overcommitted yourself to a chakra-enhanced hit you were bound to blow at least a few muscles, potentially even permanently damage the limb.  
I'd worked on my control for years. I'd been using chakra consciously in my attacks for years. However, I'd never really known exactly how much of my chakra I could use. It wasn't the kind if thing you ever got to test because in a spar you wouldn't want to be actually trying to hurt somebody. I'd done some testing, just for shits and giggles, but I never went far because I never thought I'd want to use that much chakra in one blow. There was also some amount of a grey area where you'd sustained light damage but nothing that couldn't be healed up, giving enough leeway to pull crazy shit off like using half your chakra in one massive blow.  
The most I'd ever tried before was an eighth of my chakra. That had felt like a lot then. Now, I'd just used four times as much.  
Practical? No.  
Satisfying? You bet your ass it was.  
The room was dead silent. I set my chin, watching through narrowed eyes as not a single person in the room seemed to know how to react. It wasn't until Naruto started cheering wildly that they started to applaud. The corner of my mouth lifted in a sly grin. Oh, yeah, that felt good.  
A couple of the muscles were strained, that much I could feel as I limped towards where he was sprawled along the ground. Nothing was torn though. At least now, I knew, in a case of emergency that I could use that much. I bent down, careful not to shuffle him around too much because I already knew his back was damaged and there was no need to make it any worse.  
"He's not dead," I called.  
Hayate appeared at my side, looking at me with grudging admiration. "That took nerves of steel, kid. A bit overkill but whatever, you didn't actually kill him so I guess that's what matters," he said. He cleared his throat a little and announced, "Kasumi Himura is the winner by knockout."  
.-.-.  
They escorted me to Konoha Hospital as soon as my fight ended, despite my protests to stay and watch. I didn't protest too hard considering I was well overdue to get all these injuries dealt with and the others could fill me in on anything I needed to know about the other competitors.  
No longer having to feel that disgusting chakra was another bonus.  
I was set up in one of the beds, assessed, and made as comfortable as possible while I waited for somebody to come in to treat the injuries. There were far more important cases to be treated than mine so I was stuck there waiting for a while. I didn't mind much, letting my head fall back and watching the clouds through the window in the room. After a couple of hours the door finally opened and I didn't bother to look at who it was, recognizing the chakra signature easily.  
"You know," Kakashi-sensei said as he walked in. "When I saw that look in your eye, I knew you were going to do something reckless and stupid. I just didn't expect you to nearly blow your leg off kicking him in the ribs."  
"You're a drama queen," I countered, my eyes following the sky. "I did not nearly blow my leg off, I just strained a few of the muscles in my calves."  
"You could have though."  
"But I didn't," I emphasized.  
"Kid."  
"It worked," I said with finality. "It was stupid and reckless, but it worked."  
He rolled his eye, not really able to argue with me. That's just how combat was. Rash actions weren't ideal, but when your back was against the wall, sometimes they were all you had - when they worked, they worked, and you got to live another day, effectively ending the conversation. "Yeah, yeah."  
Pulling out a book he settled down in the chair beside the bed, apparently prepared to be here for a while. I didn't mind the company, but I couldn't help but wonder if there were more important things for him to be doing than sit in my hospital room and read.  
I rolled my eyes. "Don't you have other students to bug?"  
"They're both done with their fights," he said. "And I had to bring Sasuke here anyways, so I figured I might as well stop by and see how you were doing."  
"Was he hurt?"  
"It was a hard fight for him, but he'll heal just fine."  
I wondered if he was talking just about the preliminary rounds but since I already knew what all had happened with Sasuke and Kabuto I kept silent.  
Absently he set his book down, picking up the clipboard and flipping through it. "Two arm fractures, damage to muscles and tendons in the shoulder, three fractured ribs, lacerations and severe bruising on the back…"  
I scoffed. "Severe bruising is pushing it."  
"You sure were busy in that forest."  
My mind went through a slideshow of memories. Three dead bodies. Orochimaru. The Sound genin. I gave my head a shake, shoving away the thoughts. "Busy is one word," I said softly.  
His eye moved back to mine, reading me like an open book. "Something you wanna say, kid?" he asked, speaking carefully. It was an open invitation not an order.  
"I need some fresh air," I declared, not caring that my topic change lacked any form of subtlety.  
I slipped off the bed, padding over to the window and pushing it up, settling myself down on the sill. The roof wasn't terribly far up, I'd still be able to sense when somebody was sent into my room. I put a bit of chakra into my feet and started to walk up the walls. I heard Kakashi-sensei heave a sigh before I felt him mimic my actions.  
The roof was much better than any stuffy hospital room.  
I settled on the edge of the roof, dangling my heels over the edge and opening up my senses, watching as people milled around. People watching. I watched families mill about, able to spot the off duty shinobi in amongst them, their chakra signatures flaring with life and strength that made them stick out like sore thumbs.  
"That girl, there," I said, pointing a vague hand down as I felt Kakashi-sensei sit down beside me. "She's about my age. Civilian. Incredibly extroverted, but also thoughtful about what she says and how she does things. High energy signature for a civilian, moves deliberately… has a purpose in how it goes. Her friend beside her is so incredibly opposite it blows my mind. Low-key signature with rapid movements that swirl inwards. She likes to keep to herself, very introspective, but when she does get going you bet your ass she's going to be passionate about what she does."  
He pointed to a boy who was sitting in front of a cafe, sipping coffee. "How 'bout him?"  
I honed in my gaze and frowned. "Do you know him?"  
He looked genuinely intrigued. "What makes you say that?"  
"High level chakra, high level shinobi."  
"I'm curious to see what level of accuracy this has," he admitted. "I do know him. Fairly good idea of his personality. You don't know him, so you have no way of really knowing."  
"It branches out… bright… cycles in waves…" I murmured as I observed. "He's creative and flexible. Generally cheerful disposition. He's maybe… thirty? There's an underlying level of danger to him though, not unstable but… unpredictable?"  
"Close enough," Kakashi-sensei said with a thoughtful hum. "Age is off though."  
I chewed my lip. "Twenty-five?"  
"Wrong way."  
"Thirty-five."  
"Thirty-two."  
"Age is off," I said in a mocking voice. "Two years."  
"Off is off kid."  
We did that for a while. It was nice. I kept half an eye on the signatures moving through the hospital, watching to make sure nobody walked into a room with an empty bed and an open window. That could lead to a lot of panic very quickly. I let out a yawn, leaning again Kakashi-sensei, passively watching the clouds pass after watching people watching started to give me a bit of a sensory-overload headache.  
When I felt the spike of chakra heading down the hallways I planted my feet against the wall of the building and righted myself - or rather, stood up on the wall. I was standing sideways to the rest of the world.  
I slipped back through the window just as the door was opening, the young man walking through it pausing. He sighed, apparently used to people doing that, and said, "You could have just used the stairs."  
"Where's the fun in that?"  
He shook his head and motioned for me to sit down, which I did. He gave the clipboard attached to my bed a quick scan, looking between the words written on the pages and the actual injuries on my body. "Alright, which one currently is hurting the most?"  
"Ribs," I said without hesitation.  
He nodded and had me lift up the undershirt I'd been given. It was a spaghetti-strap tank top that allowed unobstructed access to the damage without making me take off my shirt. He carefully unwound the bandages, gauging the injuries and going from there.  
Kakashi-sensei entered the room as well, slinking back into the chair and reading his book.  
When he was finished on my ribs I heaved a sigh, a relief filled laugh bubbling from my lips as it came without even a hint of pain. He spared me a smile and moved onto unwinding the bandages lining the right side of my upper body. He was as gentle as he could be but I had my hand curled into a fist in my lap, clenching my jaw against the pain.  
"I'll do the shoulder first. It'll make the arm easier," his eyes moved to my face. "Need something to make this more comfortable?"  
"Fine," I rasped. "Just get it over with."  
"Kid," Kakashi-sensei said lightly from his spot. "Don't make this harder on either of you by being stubborn."  
"It'll act fast," the guy promised.  
I shut my eyes but nodded, not willing to drag my heels over it. Wanting to just get this over with wasn't a good enough reason to refuse something that would make this easier for both of us. He dipped out of the room, returning a minute later with a small glass jar and a syringe. I looked at him curiously.  
"What is it?" I asked warily.  
"Low-grade sedative," he responded. "I can't completely numb the area because when I heal muscles I still need to get some idea from you about how it's functioning."  
Fair enough. I looked away with a grimace as he injected the needle into my arm, ever uncomfortable by the image of things sinking into my skin. It was another five minutes before I started to feel it taking effect and I was grateful for it in the end.  
He went slow, gently working his way from my neck to the top part of my arm, stopping in intervals to have me test out how it felt. By the time he made it to my arm, he was starting to look worn out, but his control over the chakra never wavered, a precise hand that didn't waver.  
He may not have been going out of his way to show me what he was doing, not like I ever asked him to, but I was still able to get some useful information as he worked. Medical ninjutsu was something that had to be shown and done and practiced. All the theory in the world wouldn't help you if you cracked under pressure. I opened my senses some, watching as practically no chakra was being wasted.  
"Your control is incredible," I murmured, voicing the observation. "I barely see any blow-away as you're working."  
It took him a second to respond, hearing what I said and only processing it in the back of his mind. "Sensor type?"  
"Yeah."  
"Huh. Well, thanks." It was a short response but there was sincerity in the words.  
I didn't say much more, not wanting to distract him as he was stitching the bone in my arm back together. "Welcome."  
He took a step back, holding the arm out in front of me and gently placing it at my side. I moved it around, testing the boundaries, and let out a small squeak as a pinpoint of pain burned at one of the fractures.  
His face screwed up in a frown, raking a hand through his hair. "Ah, shit. Sorry."  
"Don't worry bout it."  
"Fractures can be tricky, especially if you miss even the smallest of bits," he said slowly, moving a hand coated in green chakra until he seemed to spot it. He pointed a finger at the area of the fracture that he'd missed. "There's a small piece here, about the size of a crumb, that didn't get picked up."  
I held up my hand and coated it in medical chakra. "Mind if I look?"  
He blinked in surprise but shrugged. "If you want."  
I lay my hand over it, consciously not picking up the piece but observing it. A crumb was generous. It was definitely smaller, an easy to miss thing, tiny in the grand scheme of things. "I see it. Not surprised you missed it."  
"Still part of my job."  
I moved my hand away and let him finish up there. He took a couple of minutes break, stretching out his back, before he moved to the other side of the table, lifting up the back of my shirt and checking out the damage. He took barely anytime to clean up the entire area. As I figured, there wasn't much there.  
He took his hand away and I shifted, satisfied. "Man that feels so much better," I said.  
"Do me a huge favor, and don't try to do any major training for the next few days," he said as he started scribbling things down on the clipboard. "I know you're in the final part of the chunin exams and all. Normally I'd say take a week off entirely but since that's probably just going to be a waste of breath… just don't be stupid, 'kay?"  
I snorted. "At least you're realistic."  
"Work with shinobi long enough and you learn to be," he said dryly.  
"Uhm… one more thing, if you don't mind."  
"What's up?"  
I pointed to my face. "I tried to get what I could but… I can't get the rest of the scars to… you know… fade away," I said quietly. "Can you do anything about them?"  
"I'll take a look," he replied. "But scarred tissue is hard to work with… so I don't want to promise you anything, okay?"  
I nodded. He stood there for nearly five minutes, non-stop healing what was left of the marks on my face. They were faint, nothing compared to Shika's dad, yet still very visible to anybody who was standing in front of me. I'd given them a bit more attention before the preliminary fights but there wasn't much I could do against them. It was like he said - scarred tissue was a bitch.  
He blew out a breath. "They're better," he admitted. "The other two will fade off with time - the only one that's really fighting to stick around is the one on your chin. I don't think there's anything I can do for you on that one, sorry."  
"It's alright," I murmured. "Thanks for trying."  
He gave me a sympathetic smile. "They're really not that bad. Besides, when you work as a shinobi, you're bound to gather scars. Look at it as one hell of a start."  
"I'll try."  
"I hope I don't see you back here," he called over his shoulder on his way out the door.  
I hadn't expected him to actually struggle with getting rid of them. I'd thrown it off as me just not knowing what I was doing enough yet. It wasn't even that cool of a story, really. Yeah, I was fighting Orochimaru and he knocked me out of a tree.  
I hopped down off the bed and shoved my hands in my pockets. If I was stuck with them I was stuck with them. I'd get over it, eventually. Didn't mean I couldn't be sour over it for right now though.  
Kakashi-sensei stood up, book snapping shut. He strode over, placing a hand on my hair and ruffling it, sparing me a smile. "Let's get you home before your mother kills me."  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE  
.-.-.  
The walk home was mostly silent. I had my hands in my pockets, staring up at the sky as we went, chewing on my lip.  
I hadn't said anything about Orochimaru. Not that it would have mattered, given that by the time Kakashi-sensei even got to my room he was long gone, and it's not like they weren't aware that Orochimaru was kicking around either in the village or somewhere near it. I was wondering, now, exactly how much they knew, though.  
Kakashi-sensei had been fishing for information but he wasn't going to force it out of me, meaning they at least had some idea of what had gone on. Anko had found the bodies of the Kusa team Orochimaru killed and she'd faced off with him in the Forest of Death. Kakashi-sensei had been face to face with him hours ago.  
"Penny for your thoughts?" Kakashi-sensei murmured.  
"Hmm?"  
"You've been awfully occupied," he said and poked the side of my head. "Got a lot going on up there."  
"A lot happened."  
"I figured. We've got another… what… twenty minutes to your house?"  
"Do you have some kind of pipe dream to become a psychologist?" I asked dryly.  
"I'm no Yamanaka, but when they gave me you three for a team I started to wonder if the Hokage thought I did."  
Ouch. Yeah, alright.  
I frowned. Might as well just spill. "How much do you know about what happened to us in the forest?"  
There was a pause. "Not a lot. I didn't get much of a chance to speak to Naruto or Sasuke."  
"I'm not sure out in the open is the best place to be talking about this," I murmured slowly.  
Could I feel anybody I thought could overhear us? No.  
Does that mean there was nobody around who could overhear us? No.  
Orochimaru may have seen me as nothing more than a little bug getting into his way, but I'm also sure he wouldn't appreciate having me going around and spreading what I know. Right now I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him if I could help it.  
He lay an arm over my shoulders, gently steering me around. "I know a place."  
The place happened to be a small tea shop tucked into one of the niches of Konoha. It was a cozy place with a smattering of tables both inside and undercover. There windows were situated on the top part of the shop, allowing in natural light while still maintaining privacy for those inside. The draw for it, though, were the privacy seals that surrounded each table, separating it from the rest of the store. When you walked in there was noise but it just sounded like background chatter, undefined and impossible to make sense of.  
The woman smiled and led us through the aisle to one of the corner tables.  
I sat down in the chair, slipping off my shoes and setting my heels against the edge of it, curling my arms around my legs. Kakashi-sensei set me with a look. "What happened?"  
"I'm sure you already figured out that we were attacked by Orochimaru during the second part of the exam?"  
He nodded. "I was trying to limit how much damage the seal on Sasuke's neck was doing to him when Orochimaru found us. He didn't say it in so many words, but it didn't take a genius to put those pieces together."  
That confirmed what I knew, then.  
"Where is he now?"  
The man shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."  
I opened my mouth to say something but closed it again as a young woman stepped through the seals, tea tray in hand. She gave a small bow of her head and stepped back out of it hurriedly.  
"We were setting camp for the night when he first attacked," I began. I ran through the entire story, using what I remembered and then going off of what parts of the story Sasuke had told and what parts of the story Naruto filled in from after he became conscious again. My face screwed up in a frown as I finished. "When I woke up, I was heavily injured and the boys were both still up in the tree branches."  
Kakashi-sensei rubbed his face tiredly. "That sheds some light on things."  
"You don't sound terribly surprised," I muttered. I let out a yawn, resting my head on my knees.  
"How did you move two boys who both have a good fifteen pounds on you with only one arm?"  
"Rope."  
"Rope," he said slowly. "Alright."  
"I carried Sasuke with my good arm and tied Naruto to my lower back so I could just drag him along," I said. "It sucked but I only moved us until I found the first bit of cover that was big enough for both of them. By that point, we had both the scrolls we need because we ambushed a Taki team earlier on, so it was just a matter of surviving to the tower."  
"Iruka said that you ended up arriving together with Team 10."  
I nodded. "Yeah. We got ambushed while I was waiting for Naruto and Sasuke to wake up. A team from Sound. Team Guy showed up first, or at least Rock Lee did. I knocked out one of them and Lee killed another, so the last one gave up the scroll surrendered. Team 10 came along not long after. They stayed just to dissuade anybody from trying to attack and make sure all of us were alright. We had an extra Earth scroll we gave to them so they ended up just going with us to the tower."  
"Wait, which scroll did you start with?"  
"Heaven."  
"And you ambushed the Taki team early and got an Earth scroll."  
"Yeah."  
"Where did the other one come from?"  
"I got ambushed while I was trying to hunt for some food," I said quietly. "Three of them against me. The boys came to help, but they were back at the camp. I got trapped in by a barrier and they tried to attack me, so I set off a poison tag inside the barrier."  
It didn't feel as bad to talk about after the first few days. I still killed people, but I knew it was just the first. In the Academy, they brushed over it some, mostly saying that the first time you take a life is the hardest, that it's important to rationalize what happens. Self defense was self defense and all that jazz. Three people attacked me, so I killed them. I'd have to learn to just suck it up and deal with it as a fact of my career choice because while it was the first time it certainly wouldn't be the last.  
His expression softened some, picking up on what I wasn't saying. "Kid, you did what you had to do."  
"I know. I don't regret it and I'd probably have done the same thing in the situation, just, ya know," I murmured. "First time and all."  
He hummed.  
We both finished up the tea before Kakashi-sensei paid the bill and led me home.  
.-.-.  
The first thing I did when I got home was have a lengthy, uncomfortable conversation with mama and papa about what happened. It was heavily edited, for their sanity's sake, but even with that mama's mouth was set in a thin line the entire time, fixing me with an unflinching stare that set me on edge. I skimped out on the fact that I actually killed the three shinobi who attacked me, the entire encounter with Orochimaru, and that death of Zaku.  
It felt like I'd taken an R rated movie and twisted the plot so that it was PG 13.  
Mama wasn't satisfied by my story, not something I was bothered by, and I noticed her eyes repeatedly flickering down from my eyes to the new scar on my face, the fact that I never specifically addressed it not sliding past her radar. I could have just as easily stamped the 'it's classified' excuse on there and called it a day. Even a heavily edited version was better than nothing and she knew that which was why she didn't pester me for more details after I gave my story.  
After dinner I went to Naruto's apartment to see how the preliminaries went but he wasn't home. I gave the Hokage Monument and Ichiraku's before just giving up and heading over to the Nara compound. Yoshino answered the door, sweeping me up in a hug and congratulating me on making it into the final part of the exam. Shikaku echoed his own congratulations, though his voice held unveiled amusement, likely well aware of how exactly I won my preliminary round.  
I knocked on Shika's door, taking the vague noise that sounded like a combination of 'what' and 'yeah' as his way of saying I could come in. He was laying on his bed, hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling with music playing in the background. His hair was out of its usual ponytail, loosely hanging around his shoulders.  
His eyes flicked to me and he smirked, not bothering to get up. "Hey, Kas."  
"Hey."  
I moved over to his bed, shoving him to the side to make room, completely ignoring his minor grumbles. "How did the rest of the preliminaries go?"  
I felt him shrug. "Naruto vs. Kiba, Naruto won. Sasuke vs. Yoroi Akado, Sasuke won. Lee vs. Gaara, Gaara won. Cho vs. Ino, Ino won… though Cho just forfeited as soon as it was announced. Shino vs. some Kusa chick, Kusa chick won. Neji vs. Hinata, Neji won. Tenten vs. Temari, Temari won. Kankuro vs. Misumi Tsurugi, Kankuro won. I went up against the other guy from Kusa and won," he rattled off listlessly. "You're up against that Kusa chick."  
Fantastic. She was going to be absolutely thrilled at getting the chance to fight me after I'd completely destroyed her teammate.  
"That'll be interesting," I muttered. "How does she fight?"  
"High focus on ninjutsu, mostly earth jutsu but she tossed a few shitty wind releases in there. No taijutsu slouch but you'd beat her into the ground, not that I think she'll let you get anywhere near her. She wasn't stupid. Decent accuracy with thrown weapons."  
"Definitely going to be interesting. She'll be out for blood," I said with a sigh. "I can't imagine she'll be all that happy with me after I broke her teammates back and crushed half his ribs."  
"Dad said he wished he could have seen that," Shika said.  
"You told him?"  
"Didn't have to. Apparently it's not often people see a genin pull out a move like that, sent a bit of interested buzz around along with some of the other fights."  
"Huh." Had to admit, it was kinda nice to know that I'd sent up some buzz with a stunt like that. "How were some of the other fights?"  
"Brutal," he admitted. "Gaara completely destroyed Lee. I heard that he won't be able to be fight ever again because of the damage. Neji nearly killed Hinata. Tenten got destroyed by Temari, didn't even get a scratch on her."  
I let out a breath. "Fuck."  
"It was… bad," he settled on.  
"How about you, who are you going up against in the finals?" I asked idly.  
"Temari," he answered. His tone told me he was frowning.  
"You sound thrilled," I teased. Gently, I bumped my shoulder against his side. "You'll do fine."  
He made a noncommittal noise - whether because he didn't believe me or he didn't care I couldn't tell. I knew he had it in him to win. The only reason he won't win is if he pulls the same bullshit excuse about being out of chakra because the idea of being a chunin is too troublesome. Then he moved beside me, propping himself up on one elbow, glancing at me curiously, a small smirk on his face. "Looks like they missed something when they were healing you."  
I shot him a look, my hand fluttering up towards it. "The scarred tissue is too bad for him to do anything about it."  
"Hmm."  
"Is it that bad?" I asked, suddenly somewhat self conscious about it. He was just teasing me, I knew that, it's not like I'd never done the same to him. Still, though…  
The fact of the matter was that although it had faded some, given the amount of chakra I'd put into healing it, you couldn't really miss it. The pink skin was jagged and rough, a mark as long as my index finger that spanned from my chin to my bottom lip, skipped over my mouth, and then continued up until just under the left side of my nose. Sure, it could be covered with makeup if I wanted to try, but it's not like I could just wear a thick layer of concealer and anywhere I went. I wasn't a vain person by any standards. I really wasn't.  
He shifted uncomfortably, seeming to recognize that he was now walking on very thin ice. "Is there a correct answer to that question?"  
"Not really."  
"Hmm."  
"Nevermind," I muttered with a sigh.  
He dropped back down onto the bed and snuck one of his arms around my shoulders, a silent apology for saying something stupid. Ugh. Boys.  
.-.-.  
I found Naruto the next morning, arguing with Kakashi-sensei and Ebisu in front of the hospital.  
"But Kakashi-sensei," Naruto whined. "I don't want to learn from him!"  
"Naruto, he's a better teacher than I am, you're getting the better end of the bargain here," our sensei replied, displaying patience that spoke volumes about how long he'd been dealing with Naruto. "I have to train Sasuke for the next month."  
"Why can't you just reach both of us the cool new jutsu?"  
"You don't have affinity to even try a jutsu like what I'm going to be teaching him," Kakashi-sensei said. His eye shifted up, noticing me walking towards them and his shoulders sagged with relief - he was counting on me for backup.  
"What's this I hear about you not teaching us?" I asked.  
"Kasu!" Naruto cried, whipping around and crushing me in a hug.  
"Hi," I wheezed. "Please don't break my ribs again."  
He let go, his usual sheepish grin in place. "Sorry." Then, remembering why he had been upset just a few seconds ago his expression soured. "Kakashi-sensei's going to teach Sasuke and ditch us before the exam!"  
"I'm leaving you in better hands," he said.  
Ebisu, for his part, had stood silently beside Kakashi-sensei the entire time, hands in his pockets and expression torn between annoyance and amusement.  
I inclined my head towards him. "Kasumi Himura."  
"Ebisu," he said.  
No last name. Alright then.  
"I need to train Sasuke in somewhere that's a bit more… secluded. I'm teaching him a jutsu that's too dangerous and destructive to be learned in the village," Kakashi-sensei explained. "So I'm leaving the two of you in the hands of Ebisu while I'm gone."  
"Okay."  
"That's it?" Naruto exclaimed. "You're not upset?"  
Kakashi-sensei dropped a hand on my head and I assumed he was smiling underneath his mask. "This is why you're my favourite student."  
Naruto sputtered and I let out a snort. "Look at it this way Naruto: if you face off against Sasuke in the finals, and Ebisu really is a better teacher, then you'll be able to beat him," I said. He frowned, arms crossing over his chest in a display of dissatisfaction, but he didn't say anything else. I wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned on him. "Awh, come on Naruto, no need to be such a sourpuss over it."  
"Kaka, come on," he whined.  
"I'm leaving with him as soon as he's discharged," Kakashi-sensei said. "So if you have any burning questions feel free to ask them now."  
"I'm good," I said.  
Naruto kept pouting.  
Kakashi-sensei sighed. "I'll take you out for ramen as soon as I'm back, Naruto," he promised.  
"Alright," the boy said, his frown easing into a small smile.  
I wonder what Kakashi-sensei would have done if Naruto's forgiveness wasn't as easy attain as a trip to Ichiraku's.  
"There you go!" I said. "Not so bad, eh?"  
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered.  
Kakashi-sensei gave a little wave and meandered off, pulling his book out of his pocket and getting started on his perv business.  
Ebisu coughed a bit awkwardly. "You're still on medical leave, correct Kasumi?"  
I nodded. "I wasn't given any kind of exact time I should take, but I'm going to guess that I at least need to take it easy for a few days."  
"Then Naruto and I will start today with assessments. When you are ready, I can do the same with you and we'll go from there," he said.  
"Sounds good," I agreed.  
The man smirked. "Your sensei warned me that you could be a bit… colourful to work with. I hope you do not go on to prove him correct."  
Ah, my reputation precedes me.  
An edge of mischief entered my grin. "Just you wait and see."  
"I suppose I will," he said and turned to Naruto. "Alright then, let's go - "  
"I still don't think I can learn anything from an old perv like you!" Naruto cried.  
The man paused, giving Naruto an appraising look. Then his expression brightened up. "You know what? I'll make you a deal - if you can beat me in a race, I'll resign. I'll even take over some of Kakashi's duties so that he'll have time to train both you and your other teammates. How does that sound?"  
"You're on!" Naruto shouted. "I'm going to leave you in the dust!"  
I detached myself from him with a laugh. "You show him, Naruto."  
"I will! Just you wait, Kasu, Kakashi-sensei's going to be the one teaching us in no time!"  
It's hard not to at least admire his optimism even if he was about to get his ass handed to him by a jonin. I, for my part, was excited to get a chance to train with somebody else. To get promoted up to jonin just because of how good you are at teaching spoke volumes for me, and it never really hurt to get a fresh set of eyes to assess your skills ever once in awhile.  
"Ready, set - hey wait!" Ebisu cried as Naruto started sprinting away. "I didn't say go!"  
Naruto was already cackling as he sprinted down the street, shoving aside civilians and other shinobi alike one his way to wherever this race ended.  
"He doesn't even know where he's going," I muttered.  
Ebisu gave one look to me, shook his head, then took off after the orange blob that was racing away.  
.-.-.  
I leant against the tree, idly flipping the pages of my notebook and glancing between the other books I had laid out in front of me. Naruto was sitting next to me, leaving both on the trunk of the tree and against my shoulder, eyeing the words I had scrawled between the lines, unable to read them but fascinated nonetheless. I had one more day before I felt comfortable really pushing myself into training. The muscles in my shoulder were still too stiff for my liking and when it came to something as important as this I could handle taking a bit of extra time. Besides, I could always do with a bit of downtime to work on my poisons.  
Shika was sprawled a little ways away under the shade of another tree, Cho beside him. They were going on about the clouds, muttering to each other, loudly enough that I could have listened if I want, though I was focusing on other things. It was a gorgeous fall day. Not too warm, not too cold - just right for a relaxing day in the park.  
As I was moving past a rather destroyed sheet of paper, both charred from an explosive experiment and tainted by scribbles of ink, Naruto placed his finger on it, letting out a laugh. "What the hell is that?"  
I blinked, reading through the mess. "It was supposed to be a… oh, I remember. I was trying to create a poison that would aim for the brain cells specifically," I murmured. "Leave somebody completely incapacitated without killing them, should that ever be a requirement for a mission. Mostly just wanted to see if it was possible, though."  
"It looks like it went well," he snickered.  
I smacked him on the arm. "Shut up."  
"Awh, come on Kasu," he said. "I'm just buggin' you."  
"Whatever," I replied with a roll of my eyes. "Go do something constructive."  
"Wha - no! Shika and Cho are both sleeping, how is that constructive?" he cried.  
"They're also not being annoying."  
"I'm not annoying," he protested, jutting out his bottom lip.  
"Right now you are," I responded and flicked his lip. "That hasn't worked on me in years."  
"Mean," he muttered.  
"Yeah I am."  
He huffed, pointedly looking away from me. Baby.  
I tossed the notebook aside. I didn't have any old recipes I felt like revisiting so I put my attention into the books I had spread in front of me. It's not like I actually needed to come up with anything else. So far, I had four different poisons that could paralyze, two powdered and two that I had coated on weapons; three different poisons that could knock somebody out for a significant amount of time, one powdered and two coated on weapons; and then the one severely lethal poison that could actually work in both powdered form and liquid form. That doesn't even account for the different types of plants that could do well on their own without having to be made into some kind of complicated concoction.  
By now, it was more a matter of boredom and perfecting what I could do.  
I'd started scanning the pages of one of the older library books I had when I felt somebody approaching our little area. I glanced up, my eyes narrowing as they fell on the Kusa hitae-ate.  
"You," she spat, glaring down at me.  
"Me," I replied in a flat tone.  
The boys all looked towards her but knew better than to interfere - I could fight my own battles just fine.  
"Do you know what you did?"  
"I have a vague idea, but you're going to tell me anyways, right?" I drawled.  
"You little…" she trailed off. "How dare you!"  
I snorted. "Come on, are you going to actually say anything? I was doing something important before you walked your annoying little ass over here."  
"You broke his back!" she shouted. "The doctors said he's not going to walk again, and if he does he'll never be fit to return to active duty."  
Huh. Well, I wasn't surprised that I'd left him in a wheelchair, but I hadn't thought it was that bad. Broken back is a broken back, though. I didn't feel terribly bad about it - he was still alive so I could have done much worse to him. Instead of saying anything to her I turned to Shika, a smirk on my face. "I told you she'd be out for blood."  
He barked a laugh, shaking his head.  
"Do you even care?" she burst. "You ruined his career!"  
"I ruined his career?" I shot back coldly, eyebrow raised. "You do realize that if he hadn't thrown himself at me like a dumbass the fight never would have ended like that."  
"You could have just knocked him out! But no, you didn't, so now our team is going to be broken up and he's left without any kind of future. You destroyed his life."  
"If he pulled shit like that in the field, he'd be dead."  
"This isn't the field."  
"It's close enough. Your teammate blatantly underestimated me. He wasn't the only one to do it, maybe, but he dismissed me to the point of running at me and leaving himself wide open," I said. "He had no idea what my skill-set was. He didn't even consider that I was going to put up a fight. It's probably better that I ended his career here, at least this way he won't even have a chance to fuck up like this and get himself and his entire team killed."  
She was practically shaking with anger. "I'll make you pay for this."  
I inclined my head. "Good," I replied.  
With that she stormed off, getting to the edge of the park before launching herself onto the rooftops of the village.  
"Man, I've never heard you use your scary voice on anybody but Sasuke," Naruto murmured, eyes wide.  
"She's got a better scary voice than Shika's mom," Cho said, looking torn between fear and awe.  
I let out an actual laugh at that. "She was asking for it."  
"Maybe the final exams won't be boring after all. I mean what's better than a classic bitch fight?" Shika commented, cracking an eye open, cheeky grin pulling at his lips. I grabbed my notebook, throwing it like a frisbee and beaming him in the forehead with a solid thwack. He jolted up, rubbing his forehead. "Kami, woman!"  
"Bitch fight?"  
"Idiot," Naruto muttered.  
"Idiot," Cho agreed.  
.-.-.  
Spoiler alert: Ebisu is a drill sergeant.  
Turns out, while he has a very well rounded skill set, he's actually a fairly advanced taijutsu user. He was thrilled when he found out that I mainly used my taijutsu and proceeded to work me into the ground in such a fashion that Maito Gai would be proud. The first hour of each session was spent either conditioning my speed and strength or learning some new kata. The next two hours was then spent sparring with taijutsu only, in which he would thoroughly hand me my ass. The last few minutes then involved me sparring with him using my bloodlimit, learning to more fluidly entwine it in my combat, working on that until I literally could expend no more chakra without getting into exhaustion territory.  
"Alright, five minute break before the final spar," he said, giving me an approving nod.  
"Yes Ebisu-sensei," I huffed, rubbing my sore shoulder. That was probably going to bruise.  
I walked around a little bit, shaking out my limbs, steadying my breathing some. Even though it was a relatively cold day, by Fire Country standards, I was in a sleeveless shirt and shorts, sweat drenching my clothes. So far two weeks of this training every single day had gone by and I could definitely see the improvements that I'd made. My speed was improved; my reflexes had grown sharper; my blows were hitting harder without chakra; my chakra reserves had grown; and it actually seemed like it was taking less chakra to hold my bloodlimit.  
I mean, I still couldn't hold a candle to Lee in taijutsu mastery, but I wasn't going to need to.  
I took a drink from the water bottle sitting in the shade and then stood in front of him, getting my hands ready in front of me. Already, without meaning to I'd used up a decent chunk of my chakra from enhancing my muscles during the earlier spars. I'd probably get thirty to thirty-five seconds worth of my bloodlimit before I'd have to end the spar.  
"Come at me whenever you're ready," he said.  
I gave a firm nod and let out a breath before I sank into my offensive stance. Then I threw myself at him.  
I flew forward, taking advantage of my height and ducking under his cover, snaking an arm up towards his jaw. He moved back, raising his leg to kick at me in retaliation. I ducked under it easily -  
On.  
\- and rolled to the side, landing with my hands planted on the ground and sprung up so I was positioned behind him. I crouched down, sweeping a leg -  
Off.  
\- at his ankles. He hopped over my leg like a skipping rope and snapped his hips mid-air, kicking out at my head. I jerked away, narrowly avoiding his foot and went with the momentum, springing back out of the way.  
On.  
I ran forward, positioning myself at his side.  
Off.  
He whirled around to face me, hands in front of him, ready to block. I took a step back -  
On.  
\- to let him think I was moving somewhere else before my leg shot out -  
Off.  
\- and slammed into his ribs, catching him by surprise and sending him stumbling to the side.  
On.  
He recovered, steadying himself on his feet, eyes darting everywhere. Most jonin had at least some level of chakra sensitivity. Add that to the years of experience he has over me there's no way for me to straight beat his reflexes. I lurched forward, my hand striking out -  
Off.  
\- and my fingers landing a solid jab underneath his ribs. He makes a sound resembling a balloon deflating, lashing out and snagging my wrist on instinct. Ah, shit. He yanks forward, raising his knee to slam it into my stomach and I push up my feet off the ground, curling my legs against my chest. I springboard up off his knee, forcing my wrist from his grip and arcing through the air to land a few feet away from him.  
He was on me as soon as I landed, throwing a flurry of blows that I just couldn't completely avoid. I threw up my arms and absorbed as many as I could before I had to just back away, bunching up my legs and launching myself skyward.  
On.  
I landed behind him, yanking two kunai from my holster, one of which had an exploding tag attached to it - not so bad it could blow his hand off, but strong enough that he was going to have some lovely new burns on his hands.  
Off.  
I tossed it at his back, watching as he whipped around to face me, snatching the kunai out of the air as I knew he would. His mouth opened in an 'oh shit' before the tag blew up on him. Through the smoke, flicked another kunai at his signature, satisfied as I heard him actually cry out an, "Oh, shit!"  
I went to turn my bloodlimit back on when I realized that I had, indeed, hit the threshold where I had been ordered to stop. Just when it was starting to get good.  
"I gotta cut it there," I said. "No more chakra."  
"Got it," he said with a nod. Then a tentative smile stretched across his face. "At least you went out with a bang."  
The adrenaline faded and I started to feel the soreness in my muscles from getting banged around all day. I groaned, both at the strain in my body and the horrible pun, falling back against the ground. "I think I'm dead."  
"You're being dramatic," he said with an exasperated tone.  
"Are you rolling your eyes at me?"  
"No."  
"Fucking liar."  
"Language!"  
"Bite me."  
"That is a highly inappropriate thing to say to your superior!" he squeaked.  
"Oh, dear," I drawled sarcastically. "However will I live with myself?"  
"What would your sensei think?"  
"Go ahead and snitch on me if you want," I encouraged. "I'm sure sensei could use a good laugh after dealing with Sasuke for this long."  
He made a choked sound in the back of his throat. "If you were on my genin team - "  
"You'd have failed me?" I finished for him, wincing as I rolled myself up into a sitting position.  
"Yes!"  
"Good to hear," I said. I stretched up, letting the joints in my back shift and pop until they were in a comfortable place. Better. "Anything else that you wanted to work on, Ebisu-sensei?"  
"No, you and your foul mouth are dismissed," he huffed. "But you better not be slouching when I see you again! Days off are a privilege!"  
Fantastic. I had nothing else to do with the rest of my day except to take a nice hot bath and curl up with a good book. I scooped up my bag and slung it over my shoulder, taking off before Ebisu could get any grouchier with me.  
"See you in a couple of days!" I called over my shoulder.  
.-.-.  
With my day off, I already knew what I wanted to do. I had pretty much spent the entirety of my days training, having barely seen any of my boys since Ebisu began working with me. If I wasn't out in the training grounds, I was in my workshop, or at home getting small pieces of relaxation. It was paying off but it was nice to finally get a chance to get out and take a trip to the hospital.  
Hinata and Lee were both only just well enough that they were being allowed, so there wouldn't have been a huge point in going earlier anyways.  
I stopped by the Yamanaka flower shop on my way there.  
"Hi Ino," I said with a smile.  
"Kasumi!" she said. She smiled at me, though I noted how her eyes seemed to linger on my chin for just a second longer than anywhere else. "Hey, how are you doing?"  
"Sore," I admitted. "Ebisu-sensei's throwing me into taijutsu hell."  
She snickered. "Asuma-sensei's been just as bad with Shikamaru and I."  
"I bet," I said. Then, I remembered - Ino wasn't even supposed to make it into the finals. "Who are you facing off with?"  
"That creepy puppet guy from Suna, Kankuro," she said with a shudder. "His face paint makes me want to cringe."  
I rolled my eyes. Well, I guess that meant she was going to get a pass on the first round. It also meant she could be stuck up against Temari in the second round, a fight I didn't see going in her favor. That or I was going to be stuck fighting Temari and I wasn't too thrilled about that idea either. "And the puppets don't?"  
"Oh, they're bad too, the paint is just worse. Not to mention that weird hat of his!"  
"Yeah, yeah, he's a walking fashion disaster," I said. "Anyways, do you mind helping me pick out some flowers?"  
"'Course! What are you looking for?"  
"I want some for Hinata and Lee."  
She nodded. "I know just the thing!"  
She dashed off, running through the store with her long ponytail flapping behind her, muttering to herself and greeting the other customers of the store as she went. I could see her father in the back watering the plants and watching in amusement as his daughter raced through the store.  
"Hello Mr. Yamanaka!" I called, waving at the older man.  
He looked over and smiled at me, returning the wave. "Good morning, Kasumi!"  
"Dad… orange lilies?" Ino shouted from wherever she was in the store.  
"You just ran past them, sweetheart."  
She turned back, grinning and snatching up a bouquet of them before running back to where I was, cheeks flushed. In one hand she held the orange lilies and in the other she held soft pink and red carnations.  
"Courage, friendship, and confidence for the carnations, must be Hinata," I said, pointing to them. I moved over to the lilies, pausing, until I recognized it with a shake of my head. "Youthfulness and passion for the lilies, definitely Lee."  
"Kunoichi lessons really did stick with you!" she cheered.  
"Against my will."  
I reached into my pocket and she waved me off. "Consider them a gift."  
"Thank you," I said. "I'll make sure to tell Hinata and Lee that you sent them!"  
"Don't tell Lee, I don't want him beating down my door!"  
"Sorry, I can't hear you!" I shouted as I ran out of the store, blissfully ignoring the shouts of the other girl.  
I wasn't particularly close with either Lee or Hinata, but it didn't feel right to not at least stop by and see how they were doing, especially after Lee helped me. Naruto I knew had at least popped by Hinata's hospital room every few days since they started letting her have visitors.  
Her room was the closest to the entrance, so it was the first I stopped by.  
I knocked on the door. I could feel Kiba was in there as well, though I was sure he was there nearly everyday so I didn't feel too bad about interrupting their visit.  
"C-come in!" was the muffled cry.  
I cracked it open and peeked my head in, smiling at the two of them. "Hi, hope you don't mind."  
"N-no, not at-t all!" she said.  
Kiba gave me his usual sharp smile that every Inuzuka seemed to share. "Nah, don't even worry," he said. "Two chairs in here for a reason."  
I bobbed my head, wandering over to the other chair and holding out the flowers to her. "Here, from Ino and I," I said with a smile. "She said you'd like them."  
While Hinata was now well enough to be seeing visitors, she still had a ways to go. She was attached to a wide variety of machines still and a large portion of her upper body seemed to be covered in bandages. By the looks of it, I wasn't the only person who was sending in flowers so far, as both her bedside tables were covered in gorgeous arrangements.  
"Thank you!" she said. "Th-they're beautiful."  
"You're welcome, I'm glad you like them and I'm glad you're condition has started improving," I said and scratched the back of my head. "I uh… heard about what happened."  
Kiba's lips pulled back into a snarl. "Don't even get me started."  
I reached across the bed to pat his shoulder. "Down, boy. Naruto's going to beat his ass into dust, don't you worry."  
"I kn-know Naruto c-can wi-win!" Hinata said, her voice firm despite the stutter.  
"He's training hard," I said. "Even if his sensei's a bit… odd."  
"You guys aren't training with Kakashi-sensei?" Kiba asked.  
I shook my head. "No, he's taken Sasuke into a more remote area so he can safely train him to use a new jutsu. I'm training with Ebisu and Naruto's training with Jiraiya."  
Jiraiya was… interesting to say the least. He certainly lived up to his reputation. Naruto had been shocked I'd want to be within three feet of the man after I asked to meet him. Still, Naruto let me come to one of his training sessions, and when Jiraiya did bother to look at me, it was so that he could make some kind of perverted or generally bad joke.  
Not the worst first impression anybody had ever made with me - just not the best.  
"As in… the Sannin?"  
"That nasty old pervert, yeah," I said.  
"K-kasumi!" Hinata gasped.  
I shrugged shamelessly. "It's what he is. That man is a disgusting lech who thinks peeking in on the bathhouses is a viable hobby."  
"Yikes."  
"Yeah," I sighed. "But he seems to be doing well with Naruto's training, so I can't complain too much there."  
We chatted for a few more minutes, dancing between a couple of different topics before I left the two of them on their own, moving further down into the hospital where Lee's room was. It was a lot easier to locate given that I could hear Lee and Tenten shouting from halfway down the hall. As I approached the door I heard a loud crash and I winced. Oh, boy.  
Hesitantly, I opened the door.  
"Lee! You need to lay down and rest!"  
"Tenten I cannot! I must exercise my youthful prowess! I have fallen out of training!"  
"You're injured, you idiot! The nurses said you have to rest."  
"I am barely even training!"  
"1000 pushups is plenty training, Lee!"  
"Am I… uh… interrupting something?" I asked, taking a half step inside.  
Lee's upper half of his body was hanging off the side of his bed with Tenten looking like she was trying to keep him in there as gently as possible. His entire body was covered in bandages and he had even more machines beeping around him than Hinata. When he heard my voice he snapped up, flopping back into his bed. Tenten gave a sigh of relief and moved into the chair beside him.  
"Kasumi, my youthful flower!" he cried. "How much joy I feel just being in your presence!"  
"Hey," Tenten said, giving me a small wave.  
I walked in, handing him the flowers. "Here, these are for you. Just as thanks for what you did for me during the exam."  
I swear to Kami, he actually burst into tears. My eyes widened and I took a step back in surprise. It was easy to forget just how… interesting Lee was after not seeing him for two weeks.  
"Your kindness is too much for me! So sweet and lovely you are! I will cherish these flowers for the rest of my life and grow a garden from them to remember you by!"  
Tenten gave an exasperated sigh, much like Kakashi-sensei tended to when Naruto was in a particularly hyper mood. "Sorry," she said. "He's a bit more… Lee than usual. He's been cooped up in here for too long without being able to burn off energy."  
I gave a small nod. "I uh… can imagine."  
Tenten smacked him on the arm. "You're freaking her out."  
"I am so terribly sorry, my sweet flower - "  
"Use her name, Lee."  
"I am so terribly sorry, Kasumi!"  
"It's alright," I said.  
I had a sudden new level of respect for Tenten that I couldn't put into words. Growing up with Naruto had been a unique experience in itself, but having to deal with this much energy for extended periods of time? Not a chance.  
"Oh, hey! Guy-sensei said that you were looking for some help with weaponry, right?"  
I blinked - I had forgotten about that. "Yeah, actually."  
"I have the rest of the day off. Guy-sensei's focusing on Neji right now, 'cause he's in the finals and all that. If you want, we can go down to the training grounds and get started on getting a feel for what you might like."  
"That'd be awesome. I have the rest of the day off, and I can probably squeeze in some training with you after I have my normal training with Ebisu, if you've got time."  
"Like I said, with Neji training for the finals and Lee out of commission I've got a decent amount of time on my hands," she said with a smile. Then she shot a glare at Lee. "If I find out that you've been trying to train again…"  
"I will behave, Tenten! That is a promise!"  
"Uh huh."  
"Meet me at training ground fifteen in half an hour," she said.  
"Sure," I said. "Bye Lee!"  
Tenten took the door and I ducked out the window, scaring the shit out of the poor civilians walking through the hospital gardens.  
.-.-.  
"Okay," Tenten said, clapping her hands together. She had brought literally every weapon she owned with her, contained in five separate scrolls, divided up depending on the type of weapon they were. "Run me through a few of your taijutsu kata. I want to get a feel for how you fight before showing you any weapons."  
I ran through a mish-mash of the different kata I knew, ranging from the basics that I'd refined from the Academy to the ones I'd only just recently learned from Kakashi-sensei. Despite everything I still maintained roughly the same taijutsu style as how I was taught at the Academy.  
My taijutsu was, often, defensive.  
I'd wait.  
I'd watch.  
Then I'd use my own enemies screw ups against them.  
Fast and fluid movements that used my height to its advantage. When I wanted I could go on the offensive with ruthless aggression, taking advantage of the strength and speed I'd developed to annihilate my opponent before they had a chance to even know I was there. It was like my wind-natured chakra in that aspect.  
Tenten stood back, watching me carefully, before she called out, "Alright, I think I got it."  
I moved over to where she was. "What do you think?"  
"You're looking for a compliment, not a replacement, right?"  
"Yeah."  
She hummed. "I have a few suggestions," she said, ducking down and rolling out three of the five scrolls. She placed her hand on them and activated the storage seals on them, pulling weapons out as she spoke. "First option would be the kusarigama. Ball and chain for long range, blade for when you get up close and personal."  
She handed it to me and I weighed it in my hand. I moved away from her, testing it out a little, but shook my head with a frown. "I don't think so."  
"Alright." She grabbed it from me and put it back in the scroll, instantly pulling out another one. "How about the yawara? You can hit people's pressure points with the blunt side, stab them in the face with the pointy side."  
"I think I'd prefer something that's more aimed at slashing rather than stabbing," I murmured.  
She nodded, replacing the heavy metal with something a bit lighter, smirking at me faintly. "Nunchaku?"  
I snorted. "Too stereotypical."  
"I figured."  
"How about kodachi? I've also got a set of smaller twins, if that'd interest you."  
I carefully took the blade from her hands. It was definitely a possibility. "Maybe, actually." I moved it around a little, the light blade comfortably slashing through the air. "It's definitely functional, and I can coat it if I want to. I'd want to go the twin route, though."  
She nodded thoughtfully, swapping the single kodachi out for its twin counterparts and setting them down on the ground. "If you're looking for a twin option, I do have something else that might work for you."  
"Yeah?"  
She reached into the scroll on the far right. "They're rather unique. I've never gotten much use out of them myself, though I've got a fair amount of kata on them if you'd be interested."  
I watched, engrossed, as she pulled out an odd pair of tessen from the scroll.  
"Tessen. Not all that common in Leaf, though I think I saw some jonin running around with some a few years ago."  
"Those are…"  
"Heavily modified," she confirmed with a grin. "You'd need a holster for them."  
The tessen were far more blade than fan. They had a small grip at the base, then the rest of the edges were gleaming knives, capable of taking somebody's head off with ease, probably just a single swipe. The fan was a charcoal black, a simple white butterfly design flying across the outside of it. Not to be left out, the edges of the tekken were like a sawblade, wickedly sharp for slashing at opponents and large enough that I could get away with coating them.  
"Those are insane."  
She laughed. "Wow, I never thought you'd be the tessen type."  
"Neither did I," I admitted.  
She folded them up and handed them to me, letting me test them out a little. "They'll actually fit in fairly well with your current taijutsu."  
"What do most of their kata involve?"  
"Lots of circular motions, slashes, kind of like dancing. They're awesome for dealing with multiple opponents. You can also to block pretty much any projectile somebody can throw at you - even a full-sized blade."  
My eyes widened in bewilderment. "You've tried?"  
She smirked. "You bet. I may not have used those much, but I've got a pretty good idea of how you would want to use them." I went to hand them back to her and she shook her head. "Honestly? If you plan on actually using them, you can keep them. They've just been collecting dust in my house."  
"No way, I can go and buy my own."  
"You're not going to find anything like those beauties anywhere else."  
"Tenten - "  
"I'm serious," she said. "Those things are insane and I'd hate to see them go to waste."  
"I… thank you, really."  
"You're welcome," she replied with a smile. She stood up, brushed the dirt off her pants, and turned to me. "Let's get started, then."  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO  
.-.-.  
The weeks leading up to the third part of the exam were packed.  
I spent the first part of my days training with Ebisu. By the end of it I knew I'd made incredible progress with my taijutsu. Even with my weights on and loaded up I'd almost gotten to the point where I was landing consistent strikes against him during our spars and was actually able to beat him when I started using my bloodlimit. I'd never seen this kind of rapid improvement in myself before and it felt damn good.  
When that was done, if Tenten had time she'd drill me in every single kata she knew with the tessen. I was having an easier time with them the more we worked and I started to see what she meant in that they were better against large groups of enemies. Most of the kata were heavily reliant on large, arcing movements, swiping with both tessen in quick succession, using one to lead yourself into the strike for the other. Enough of the kata involved spinning motions that I was starting to get dizzy during practice. It almost felt like dancing more than fighting - except that I could slice limbs off with my dance, something Tenten assured me the tessen were capable of. Tenten and I moved into spars, as well, but she was going pretty easy on me, just giving me a chance to get a feel for how the weapons moved in combat.  
Any other spare time I had I found myself out in the workshop. Even if I wasn't working on my poisons specifically, it was nice to have somewhere peaceful and quiet to have some time to myself. Right now, though, I was working on something. I'd started working on getting something I could use to coat the saw-blade tips of my tessen.  
The thing with making poisons intended to go on weaponry is that you had to make sure it wouldn't just melt through or weaken the metal to a point where it was ineffective. With the tessen being gifts the last thing I wanted to do was destroy them. Most of my poisons now weren't perfect in this respect but I'd never cared much because kunai and senbon were pretty cheap to replace, all things considered.  
It was easier to deal with single plants for right now. I'd gotten Toshiko to bring me a few different plants she thought might work, for right now only working on something that would attack the nerves rather than kill, given that lethal poisons tended to be more acidic.  
Carefully I sliced open the side of the deep red berry, gently squeezing out as much of the juice as I could manage. It dripped into the bottom of the hot pot and sizzled. I moved my face back a bit, the lenses on my goggles fogging up from the amount of steam curling out of the pot. Not much of the toxic gas got through my mask but I still felt the burn in my chest.  
Gross.  
I eyeballed the amount that I'd gotten into the pot and poured a little bit of water, not wanting the poison to be terribly diluted. I stirred it some, watching the mixture fade from crimson red to a more muted shade.  
"Hey, Kas," Shika said, poking his head. He noticed the mask and took a step back.  
"You're fine," I assured him. "Minor neurotoxin."  
He nodded a little. "A giant frog just dropped Naruto off into the hospital… I don't know what happened but you might wanna go check that out."  
It was a stark reminder of just how soon everything was happening. Gamabunta dropping Naruto off from the chakra exhaustion meant I only had three more days to prepare for the shit storm that was going to ensue.  
I turned the stove off with a click and pulled off my gear. "Yeah, I don't even want to know what the hell happened there. Wanna come with?"  
"Such a long walk," he muttered.  
I gave him a severe look. "Shika."  
"Fine, fine. Troublesome woman."  
"I'm going to tell your mom that you called me that."  
"You wouldn't dare."  
.-.-.  
"Chakra exhaustion," I said, staring down at the medical reports. "Minor strain on his muscles from training like an idiot, but primarily chakra exhaustion."  
"How long is he going to be out for, do you think?" Shika asked.  
"A couple of days at least, the little idiot," I muttered.  
"Hey, that little idiot's training is going fantastically," a new voice said. "Thanks of course to having a fantastic sensei."  
I threw a look at Jiraiya who was perched on the edge of the window. Annoying or not, I didn't have the balls to glare at the Sannin. He'd either think it was hilarious or squash me like a gnat and I had no desire to find out which.  
"He's going to give you an earful if he's not awake in time for the final exam."  
"I'd love to see him try," Jiraiya said with a derisive snort. "Not that it matters. He'll be up in no time."  
I quirked an eyebrow. "You sound awfully sure of yourself."  
"I'm a legend - it comes with the territory."  
"He's got three days, I doubt he'll need longer than that," Shika said.  
I shrugged. "Maybe, but he's also got the largest chakra reserves out of anybody I've ever seen. Bigger pools, more time to recover."  
"Have a little faith. I wouldn't let himself get disqualified like that," Jiraiya said, leaning back out the window. "I don't feel like having that entire month go to waste over it."  
With that the toad sage hopped out the window, the faint sounds of giggling floating up through the window, off to go snoop in the bathhouse.  
"You really don't like him, huh?" Shika asked.  
"I just have a hard time believing that one of the most powerful shinobi to be produced by this village spends his days as a peeping tom."  
.-.-.  
"Kaka, come on," Naruto whined. "Just help me sneak out! The finals are tomorrow and I want to at least get one more day's worth of practice in before it."  
"Not a chance."  
"Why not?"  
"Because you need to rest!"  
"I've been asleep the last two days," he protested. "I can rest after the finals!"  
"You'll rest now and after the finals, then."  
"Kaka - "  
"Calling me that isn't getting you anywhere, neither is that face," I said pointedly. "Come on if you're going to try and convince me you need to step up your game."  
"No fair, nothing works on you."  
"I've known you too long," I said. "I've seen it all."  
Naruto pouted and I went back to reading the book I'd brought with me. Ebisu had said I was better off taking the day easy to save my strength, so I'd just spent it in the hospital, trying to keep Naruto from going stir-crazy.  
I'd started looking into some of the more advanced theories. Akane had let me swap out the books she'd lent me for stuff a bit more advanced with a very stern warning about not trying anything I learnt unless it was an emergency. The books she gave me addressed the intricacies of chakra coils, advanced biological-chakra interactions, and head injuries. The theory made my head spin some and was a lot more in depth than I imagined any science in this world ever would. I guess it made sense for Konoha to have this kind of knowledge, given the fact that one of our most famous shinobi was also the best medic in the elemental countries.  
"Yo," Shika drawled from the doorway, fruit basket in hand. "I was going to take these to Cho, but the nurses said that he can't eat any of it. Want some?"  
I waved a hand. "Nah."  
"Toss me an apple," Naruto said. "Thanks!"  
Shika bit into an apple himself. "Not like I had anywhere else to take it."  
"Hey, why don't we go and eat these in front of Cho," Naruto said with a wicked grin.  
"Oh man, that's cruel," Shika answered. "Let's go."  
"Kasu?"  
"I'll come with you, but I'm not taking - " I stopped mid-sentence, Gaara's approaching chakra hitting my senses like a brick wall. Dark and powerful, shifting towards the room that I knew Lee was in fast. We had to speed things up.  
"Hey, what - "  
"Follow me," I snapped.  
They looked at each other but didn't argue. I practically sprinted through the halls to where I could feel the chakra. Even before we opened the door I could feel the killing intent seeping under the door and coating the air as we breathed.  
Killing intent was something that varied depending on who was using it. Orochimaru's felt like it was strangling me, viciously cold, something that was so effortless for him to use and so debilitating to experience. Zabuza's had been like the mist he was so fond of, merciless and thick in the air, like you knew he was going to kill you but you had no idea when or how. Gaara's, though, had a tinge of insanity on it, a serial killer who knew he was going to kill you even if he didn't understand why he was going to do it.  
Regardless, Gaara's killing intent didn't have anywhere near the strength or control that Orochimaru's had. It was noticeable but I didn't feel it in as much of a physical way, it didn't get in my way as I wrenched open the door to Lee's room and stared down the boy who was standing at his bed. Sand was curling out from his hand and through the air, floating over Lee's body.  
"I don't suggest doing that," I said coldly to him.  
He turned his head to look at me just as Shika and Naruto skidded behind me, the prior immediately lashing out with his shadow and locking Gaara in place. The boy's face didn't shift at all for a breath and then I saw his eyes widen marginally.  
"I can't move my hand," he stated, his voice like gravel.  
"What the hell do you think you're doing, you rat?" Naruto shouted, trying to shove past me to get to Gaara.  
I gave him a sharp push back. "Don't."  
"Kasu, he - "  
"I know," I said forcefully. "Shika has him with his shadow, he's not going anywhere. Calm down."  
Gritting his teeth Naruto whirled on the other boy. "So out with it, what are you playing at here, huh?"  
"I was just going to kill him," Gaara said blankly.  
"You already got him once in the competition, what's your problem? Wasn't that enough?" Shika demanded. "Do you have some kind of personal grudge or something?"  
"It's not that complicated, really," the boy responded. His eyes were completely blank of any emotion. "I simply want to kill him."  
"You're crazy!" Naruto shouted.  
"Yeah, like we're going to just stand by and let you do whatever you want, you sick psycho," Shika added.  
I kept silent, watching him stand there. He wasn't even struggling against the hold Shika had on his shadow. I don't think he even cared that much.  
"I'll just kill all three of you if you won't stay out of my way."  
"Yeah, let's just see - "  
"Naruto," I said harshly, taking him off guard. That wasn't a tone I used often but he knew better than to try and argue with me if I did. "Knock it off."  
Shika, on the other hand, was apparently feeling lucky. "Why, Kas? We saw his fight against Lee, we know how tough he is, but he doesn't know what tricks we have up our sleeve." He was bluffing and he knew it. "Not to mention it's three against one. Don't be a fool, just leave. Quietly."  
Gaara wasn't the slightest bit fazed. "I'll say it once more. Get out of my way, or I will kill you."  
Shika paled, seeming to finally realize that we couldn't reason with him. There was no talking with Gaara. There was no reasoning with Gaara. Nothing we could do would actually stop him in this little hospital room. The only hope was to stall him for the backup I knew was coming but neither of them did.  
"I'll say this again: let's see you try!"  
"Back off," Shika hissed. Oh, finally. Somebody agreed with me. "You saw him, he fights like mad! He's like - like a demon or something!"  
"He can fight like a demon all he wants, 'cause you know what? I got the real thing inside of me," Naruto said with a dangerously dark smile.  
I watched Shika's face, unsurprised when the reference didn't seem to faze him.  
"A demon, huh? Well, my demon's as real as yours."  
Gaara launched into his monologue. It was sad to listen to, honestly. As much of a homicidal maniac as he seemed to be, it was hardly all his fault, or entirely the fault of the beast sealed into him. His father was an ass and those who lived in his village were just as bad. It was shocking to me that people were always so quick to show cruelty to somebody who could essentially destroy them with the same amount of energy it takes to lift a hand.  
He didn't know what love was because the only person who'd ever been willing to show it to him was forced to betray him. His siblings were too terrified that he'd hurt them to try and form any relationship with him. The worst was the fact that, as he stated all of it, weaving this story in front of us, he seemed to be almost aware of how fucked up he was. Like he seemed to break everything he ever touched and he didn't know how to stop doing it because it just kept happening, nobody ever tried to help him make sense of it.  
The longer Gaara spoke the paler Naruto seemed to grow. I could see him piecing together the things Gaara's story and his own past had in common, the words 'my demon's as real as yours' dawning on him.  
Then, Gaara's eyes shot wide open and he shouted, "Now, let me feel alive!"  
The mass of sand exploded in motion, flying towards us like a bullet. The room was too small. There was nowhere to run, no way to get away, we were trapped. Desperately I opened my senses and a split second before I recognized the incoming signature I heard a voice behind me shout jovially, "Alright! That's enough of that, let's save it for the competition."  
All at once the sand froze mid-air. I glanced down, eyes wide, duly noting the tendril that was four inches in front of me, poised towards my heart. Slowly it retracted back into the gourd on Gaara's back and Guy took a step into the room, striking a pose.  
Gaara looked from the man in spandex, to us, then staggered towards the door. He held a hand to his head with a pained expression. He stopped in the doorway just long enough to give one final threat of, "I will kill all of you, just you want."  
I watched his signature as he left, tracking it all the way up onto the roof before he was all the way out of my range. Better safe than sorry on that one.  
"Alright here, kids?" Guy asked, flashing us his signature smile and thumbs up.  
I placed a hand over my hammering heart. "We're fine," I answered. "Nice save, Guy-sensei."  
"Of course! I was able to aid both my own student and those of my eternal rival in one fell swoop!"  
The three of us looked to each other before vacating the room. Both of the boys peered around the hall cautiously but I said, "He's gone, trust me."  
Silently we walked down the hall to where Cho's room was. Naruto was still visibly pale from listening to him and Shika seemed shaken, his face set into a carefully blank expression. My hands were shaking. I hadn't thought the sand could move that fast or that he'd even aim for me. If Guy had been any later… yikes.  
Best not to think about it.  
Cho was on his bed, looking bored out of his mind, laying back on it and staring up at the roof, his heels kicking against the mattress. We entered the room and he bolted up, his expression brightening only to fall again when he took in our mood.  
"Hey… what happened?" he asked. "You guys alright?"  
There were only two chairs. I skipped them, sitting next to Cho on the bed instead. Shika looked at me, then to Naruto who was silently staring forward, before giving a shortened version of it, recognizing that neither of us were going to talk.  
"We'd be in a lot of trouble if Guy-sensei hadn't found us," Shika admitted.  
"That's putting it lightly," I muttered.  
"You guys are serious?" Cho asked, eyes wide. "That's nuts!"  
"He said… he said he had something inside of him… Shukaku," the Nara boy said, resting his chin on his hands. "It sounds familiar."  
"Shukaku's the name of the one-tailed beast. It was gifted to sand when all of the beasts were being distributed to the hidden villages. As far as I know, Gaara's the third person to host it since they got it," I said tonelessly. "That's what he meant."  
Shika gave me a long look. "Did you know?"  
"That he had a beast sealed inside of him?" I asked. He nodded. There wasn't much point in lying. The thing was, they'd know. All of three of them were capable of reading when I was lying or telling the truth after all the years I had known them. My lips pulled down in a frown and I ran my hands through the ends of my hair. "Yeah. I can see it in his signature, Jinchuuriki tend to have pretty distinctive chakra signatures."  
"That's why you kept trying to get us to knock it off," he muttered. "Shit."  
"You guys oughta listen to me more."  
"So… can you… can you pick a Jinchuuriki out of a crowd?" Naruto asked quietly.  
My eyes shot up to him. "Yeah."  
All at once, Shika seemed to finally put everything together, hands falling in his lap and eyes wide. "Naruto… you said you had a real demon inside of you… and he said that his demon was as real as yours," he said, slowly, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to even say it at all.  
Naruto's hands tightened in his lap. "I did, didn't I?" His eyes shifted to meet my gaze. "Did you already know that, too?"  
As far as I knew, none of this was supposed to happen. This conversation wasn't supposed to happen, Naruto wasn't supposed to admit to being the container of Kurama, not yet at least. Oh, fuck.  
I closed my eyes and let out a breath between my teeth before I finally said, "Yeah."  
He mulled that over quietly. I didn't know what to really say, so I shifted forward on the bed and crawled into his lap on the chair, curling my arms around his neck to pull him into a hug. The tension in his body lessened and he returned the hug, resting his chin on my shoulder.  
He was scared we were going to judge him like everybody else did.  
"That's rough, man," Shika said, his voice taking on a more normal tone.  
"Yeah," Cho said. Then he reached down beside his bed, pulling out a fruit basket. "Ino gave these to me but I can't have any of them, want some?"  
Naruto flashed him an unusually large grin, reaching around me and grabbing an apple off the top. The conversation drifted off into what they thought was going to happen tomorrow at the finals and I listened contently, happily surprised by the new turn of events.  
.-.-.  
"Kasumi!" mama called as I heard her run up the stairs.  
I looked up from my notes, immediately scanning the house on instinct. Nothing. Of course not.  
"Yeah?"  
She charged through the door, breathless. "What on earth are you going to wear tomorrow?"  
I blinked at her. "Huh?"  
"You're going to be in front of the entire village, the Hokage, and the Daimyo! Not to mention all those other shinobi from the other villages, you need to make a good impression," she cried. "You need something nice to wear!"  
So far, every outfit I had ever bought had gotten absolutely destroyed. Training was hard on clothes without question. Long-term missions like in the Land of Waves were worse. After that, I'd had to try and replace what I ruined, only to completely destroy another outfit during the second part of the exam. I was like the bermuda triangle for clothes.  
Anytime I got something nice it either got lost or was destroyed.  
"Mama - "  
She waved her finger at me. "No, I will hear none of that!"  
"But - "  
"Kasumi, I said none of it! Grab your bag, we're going shopping right now."  
"Yes mama," I murmured, resigning myself to my fate.  
She dragged me around the different stores of Konoha for a grand total of three hours in which I managed to get three separate new outfits. She said she was planning ahead, doing me a favor so that I wouldn't have to suffer through a trip every time I ruined something. Bonding time with mama was something I loved when it didn't involve shopping - she knew what she liked and didn't like, especially when I was the one wearing the clothes.  
I did, at least, manage to get her to take a snack break at one point, grabbing some dango in between one of the stores. That had been the highlight of the day for me. I also managed to steer her towards the weapon stores so I could restock on some of the basics and pick up something to hold my tessen in while I fought.  
After all was said and done mama finally let me drag her home. I threw the door open and collapsed on the ground, letting my bags fall down around me.  
"Thank Kami," I groaned.  
Mama stepped over me and rolled her eyes. "Sweetheart, you better move before I make you move."  
I grumbled but did as she asked, hauling myself up off the ground and dragging my feet up the stairs to my room. I dumped out the bags on my bed and began organizing everything. I had to replace some of my kunai and senbon that had gone missing in the forest along with more materials to make up for all the tags I'd wasted. I didn't have time to do much with it, though I'd manage.  
I started folding up the new clothes. They were pretty nice. Mama was picky for a reason, afterall. I'd at least made sure she let me pay for some of it this time - we'd gotten a pretty significant amount of money from the Land of Waves mission and what I bought today barely even put a dent in that.  
I felt mama drift into the room behind me.  
"Come now," she murmured. "Your folding job is terrible."  
"I folded them exactly how you taught me!"  
She messed one of the piles up and then refolded them. "No, that's how I taught you to do it."  
I snorted. "They look exactly the same."  
"Only to the young, untrained eye, my dear daughter."  
I turned towards her and realized they her eyes were misting over. "Mama?"  
She gathered me up into a hug. "Oh, sweetheart." She held me tightly there for a minute and then pulled away, raising her hand to run her thumb over the scar on my face. "I want you to be careful tomorrow, alright?"  
"Of course," I said softly.  
"Papa and I won't be here in the morning when you leave," she said. "With the amount of activity they're going to need all hands on deck at the restaurant, so we're going to be there early to help out."  
I already knew they wouldn't be coming. It was one thing to know that I was going to be fighting, a whole other to actually have to watch it happen. Probably for the best - them being there would likely just end up distracting me.  
"Alright, mama. I'll make sure to swing by there for lunch after I win the tournament," I joked with a small laugh.  
"That's my girl," she said and dropped a kiss on my forehead. "I'll be starting dinner soon, when you're done up here can you come down and help?"  
"Yeah," I replied, trying to keep the worry from my voice.  
The house was at least somewhat safe. There were places to hide in the house during the invasion, but there'd be nowhere for them to go at the restaurant. What could I tell them? I fell back on the bed, ignoring the piles of clothes, and let my eyes close, desperately forcing down the panic.  
Tomorrow was going to suck.


	3. Chapters 23 - 37

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE  
.-.-.  
By the time I finally left the house in the morning to head to the arena, I had only gotten three hours of sleep. The stress of it all had left me up, tossing and turning, nightmares haunting my dreams. If this was how it was going to be every time I knew something big was going to happen, I was going to have to start keeping sleep medication on hand.  
I'd prepared myself well for the day. I had some soldier pills stashed in one of the pockets of my belt; my poison tags had been replenished along with some normal explosive tags; my kunai and senbon were all coated again, safely tucked away in the holster on my thigh; I'd attached the special holders for my tessen so that I could safely keep them on my belt without the risk of accidentally slicing myself if I moved wrong; in my back pocket, I'd stashed away my headsets for the invasion, just in case they'd come in handy.  
I wasn't in the mood to deal with the mass of people shuffling through the streets so I took to the rooftops, easily maneuvering my way towards the arena.  
Shika, Cho, and Ino were already waiting out front with Asuma when I got there. I dropped down from the roof beside them, landing with a soft thud. Shika nodded to me, Cho smiled, and Ino gave me a little wave.  
"Have you seen my sensei?" I asked.  
Asuma shook his head. "Not yet. Sorry, kid."  
"I'm sure he'll be here soon," Cho said. "No way would he miss you and Naruto!"  
"Want a bet?" I asked dryly.  
Asuma snorted. "I'm going to tell him how little faith you have in him."  
"Go ahead, I'm fairly sure he already knows."  
The man threw an arm over my shoulder. "He'll meet us inside, don't worry."  
I grumbled but went in with them, keeping an eye out for Naruto as well.  
The arena was booming with activity. There were food stands clustered outside of it, stupid little trinket booth for the foreign clients who had traveled here for the exams, even the odd carnival type game for the younger civilian kids to play. It felt kind of weird to see all of this for a tournament designed to pit kids against each other into potential fights to the death.  
There was a separate entrance for competitors and jonin-sensei who were with their students to use. It was off to the side, guarded by ANBU and jonin, leading up through a set of stairs into the upper balcony of the arena. Cho had separated from the group to go and sit with Kiba and Hinata, leaving just Shika, Ino, Asuma, and I to make our way up there and wait for the fighting to start. We still had another half an hour before the first match was slated to start up but I could already see that almost everybody was here, except Naruto and Sasuke.  
The arena itself was an intimidating sight. The stands were half-packed, more people filing in and taking their seats as the seconds ticked by, pointing in our direction excitedly. I grimaced as I saw some younger children being led to their seats but smoothed it from my face before anybody could catch it. Not something I needed to be thinking about. I did notice, however, that a large portion of the crowd seemed to be made up of shinobi, each of varying strengths. The ANBU lining the sides of the arena were understandable, though considerably heavier than one would expect, two per entrance and multiple others simply patrolling the area.  
"That's a lot of ANBU for one event," I commented lightly, leaning my elbows on the railing. Harmless. Innocent. "I don't think I've ever seen this many of them at once."  
Asuma gave me a look, something flickering in his face that I couldn't pin and in the same light tone he replied, "Yeah, they tightened security this year."  
I sharpened my senses. There were a high amount of chunin sitting amongst the stands and more than a few jonin, most of whom had dressed down for the occasion, peppering themselves among the clientele, a tense air to their chakra that told of them being on high alert, not that any of them let it slip into their body language. There was also a notable shortage of Konoha civilians. Did they know? They couldn't… could they?  
"Interesting," I murmured. "Almost as interesting as the fact that my sensei and both my teammates are still not here."  
"Don't worry over it too much," Asuma said. "Kakashi may not be the best at keeping track of time but he wouldn't let Sasuke get disqualified."  
"I'd hope not, I'm really looking forward to Sasuke's fight," Ino said. "He's going to be so awesome!"  
"Or he's just going to get his ass kicked by Gaara," Shika remarked.  
Ino smacked him in the arm. "Don't say that!"  
"That dude's scary, just ask Kas."  
I scowled at him. "Don't bring me into this."  
"Hey, he's your teammate and you've seen Gaara. You'll have a better idea of how he's going to do than any of us."  
"I also haven't seen Sasuke in a month," I reminded him. "Kakashi-sensei's probably been training him stupid."  
"You actually think he has a chance?" Shika asked.  
I gave a noncommittal shrug.  
"First your sensei now your teammate," Asuma said sardonically, taking a puff of his cigarette and blowing it out. "You're quite the supportive little teammate."  
"Whatever."  
Time ticked by until eventually they were aiming to get the event kicking off. All of us were gathered on the balcony, clustered together but given enough space that there were clear divides among the competing genin, each of us standing with our village's shinobi. I could feel the heat of the glare I was getting from the Kusa kunoichi I was going to be fighting, accompanied by a less obvious but icy stare from her jonin-sensei. Curiously I glanced around through the crowds, pinpointing Eito's chakra in the crowds to my left, wheel-chair and all. Taking a page from the book of his teammate he was also giving me a dark look from his spot - fair enough, I'd ended his career afterall.  
Unsurprisingly, Naruto took his sweet ass time in getting to the arena. Once I felt him finally nearing us I held up my open hand silently and ticked down the seconds until the orange idiot would grace us with his presence.  
"Five, four, three, two, one…"  
"I'm here!" Naruto shouted, bursting through the entrance, his breath coming in short huffs. "Just in time!"  
I shook my head, lightly cuffing him behind the head. "Idiot."  
"Hey, it's… not like… I missed anything," he managed. He was bent forward at the hips, hands braced against his knees. "It's Konohamaru's fault."  
"Sure Naruto."  
"Wait, wait! The asshole isn't here yet?" he cried. "No way!"  
"Way."  
"He has to make it so I can fight him in the finals!"  
"Why would you want to fight him in the finals, you'll just lose," Ino said, throwing her ponytail over her shoulder.  
"Remember what happened the last time you made that kind of bet?" I threw back at her.  
She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything in return. Shika let out a snort and Naruto blinked at us, obviously forgetting the spars we had a month and a half ago.  
A series of coughs echoed from down in the middle of the arena, garnering the attention of everybody in the stadium. Hayate Gekko was standing there, looking like he'd really rather be anywhere else, and I bit back any kind of surprised reaction. Huh. Curious, but it made sense - without the fight between Dosu and Gaara, in which Dosu was killed, there was no conversation for Hayate to overhear, and no reason for him to be killed.  
Cause and effect at its finest, regardless of whether or not it was intended.  
"That's my cue to leave." Asuma gave Ino and Shika pats on the back, strolling out of the little area for us and into the stands.  
"Welcome, everybody, to the final tournament of the chunin exams," he rasped. "Before the commencement of the final exams, the Hokage has a few words for us all."  
In the blink of an eye the old man went from the Kage box to standing slightly in front of Hayate, one hand curled around his pipe and the other held lightly behind his back. There was a respectful smattering of applause and Hiruzen raised a hand to bring the crowd back to silence. He gave the usual Hokage-equse speech, thanking all attendees for coming and congratulating the shinobi who made it into the third part of the exam. After he finished Hayate took back center stage and rattled off the rules of the exam before announcing the first match.  
"Starting off, we have Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuuga."  
I gave him a pat on the shoulder.  
"I got this Kasu, believe it!" he cheered. "Just you wait!"  
"You got this," I agreed. "Go kick his ass for Hinata."  
He shot me a wild grin and a thumbs up.  
Neji looked over at Naruto blankly before vaulting over the railing and landing in a graceful crouch. Not to be upstaged by his opponent Naruto followed, throwing himself over the side, flailing mid-air and tumbling to the ground in a heap. He hurriedly picked himself back up and brushed himself off, acting as if it never happened.  
"He's screwed," Shika groaned.  
"Depends," I said. "Just watch."  
"Depends on what?"  
"Just watch," I repeated.  
He raised an eyebrow. "You didn't see what Neji did to Hinata. I know Naruto's been doing some serious training, but this guy isn't messing around," he said. "Naruto can't do much at a distance, which is pretty much the only place to fight a Hyuuga and not get destroyed."  
"You're right, I did miss that fight," I allowed. "But I've seen what kind of shit Naruto can pull off when he's determined to win. He'll go down swinging because he has a point to prove."  
Shika made a noise in the back of his throat, what he always does when he thinks he's right but doesn't feel like trying to prove it. I rolled my eyes.  
The fight started off with Naruto throwing a weak barrage of kunai at Neji that the boy easily dodged them. Naruto pounced at him and the Hyuuga reacted with lightning reflexes, leagues ahead when it came to close combat despite the fact that he ended up missing Naruto's tenketsu. Even if Naruto had some other kind of plan, it was still hard to see him take what was essentially the worst possible approach to this fight. It made me wonder if his idea was to use Kurama's chakra all along or if it was just a fluke reaction to him getting his ass beat into the ground - I hoped it was the first.  
Naruto, finally realizing that just directly going at Neji wasn't going to work, sent a wave of clones at him, armed with kunai. They attacked in groups of four but Neji wasn't fazed, easily striking them down and spitting insults at Naruto.  
"That's a lot of orange," Shika observed. "I didn't think he could make that many."  
I watched as they flooded the floor, cringing a little at the sheer amount of chakra in front of me, trying to force my senses to close. "This is barely anything compared to what he can do."  
"Seriously?"  
"His chakra control has improved, so he's able to make more and use less chakra," I said, watching the excess chakra float into the air as he made them. "A lot less actually."  
Neji easily destroyed the mass of clones and stared at the boy standing across from him, refusing to give up the verbal assault against Naruto. The crowd seemed to jeer along with him, getting impatient with the fact that so far they'd spent almost as much time talking as fighting.  
Frustrated with the other boy Naruto's hands flew through seals and the ground of the arena exploded in a sea of orange, hundreds of clones popping into existence at once. I turned my head to the side, closing my eyes to try and limit the amount of information I was taking in before I got too bad of a headache.  
Neji avoided the clones, zeroing in on who he thought the real Naruto was, only to find it was just another clone. He let out a grunt of frustration. Then he sunk low, gathering chakra all around his body, and began to spin. It was an impressive sight even without being able to sense just how much chakra he was expending to pull it off. When he stood still again he was panting heavily, leaving only him and Naruto remaining.  
Naruto threw even more clones at them but Neji took up the same stance, using the same technique, repelling anything that got within two feet of him. I couldn't help but wonder how many times he could actually pull the technique off before he started running out of chakra. Then the boy sunk into a different stance and I steeled myself for what I knew I was about to watch.  
"Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms."  
Naruto took a step back, but the Hyuuga boy was on him in an instant.  
"Two palms."  
I could see the chakra leaving his fingers and embedding themselves in Naruto's tenketsu.  
"Four palms."  
My hands gripped the railing, my mouth set in a grim line.  
"Eight palms."  
Naruto staggered under the blows.  
"Sixteen palms."  
The speed of the strikes picked up with each increment, almost faster than my eyes could track.  
"Thirty-two palms."  
The steel creaked under my grip.  
"Sixty-four palms."  
Naruto was sent flying backwards, blood dripping from his mouth, the entirety of his chakra pathways in disarray. The crowd was dead silent as Hayate walked out onto the field between the two boys and nodded to himself.  
"Looks like it's over, then."  
I hissed out a breath but refused to take my gaze away from what was happening below us on the field.  
A shudder ran through Naruto's prone body.  
"I have hit all sixty-four of your chakra points," Neji said to him. "You are lucky you are even breathing right now."  
"Come on," Naruto managed to himself, trying to get back to his feet. "Come on!"  
"Must be frustrating to realize how utterly hopeless it all was. This little dream of yours. You thought you could get there with just hard work, but that's nothing but an illusion."  
Naruto slowly reached his hands up, planting them against the ground, and shakily pushed himself to his feet, swaying but standing. Hayate gave him a once over, sighed, then walked back over to where he had been standing before. The fight continued on and with every blow Naruto took I flinched, my hands tightening, everything in me wanting to go and help.  
Having to stand helplessly as you watched somebody you cared about being absolutely torn apart was terrifying. Knowing that he was going to pull it out didn't stop it from hurting as I watched more and more of his body get deprived of the chakra it needed to function. I'd only ever taken a couple of true Gentle Fist hits from Hinata and holy hell did they hurt. Taking sixty-four of them? That was the kind of pain that sent people blacking out because their body couldn't process what was happening to it.  
Somebody's hand fell over mine, cautiously pulling them off the railing. Shika didn't say anything as he detached my other hand, simply laying a comforting grip on my shoulder and staring forward, expression tight. The metal was mangled and squashed. Oops.  
"Proctor, it would be best if you called the match here."  
My head whipped up. Naruto was on the ground again, Neji standing over him. Hayate moved back over towards the boys, ready to follow up on that advice, eyeing Naruto's chest to ensure he was indeed breathing. With all the crowds here it was less likely that they'd be calling matches for the sake of keeping people entertained. As it was, a typical all-out shinobi fight would last only around three to four minutes before chakra reserves got low and bodies grew tired, so calling it sooner wasn't something they were going to do lightly.  
Hayate took a step forward and then the chakra surged.  
I'd never been this close to Naruto when he tapped into Kurama's chakra. I instinctively bit my lip as it exploded before my eyes, turning away as I felt my stomach churn and my head throb. The sheer level of chakra was hard for me to comprehend and I was glad I'd never been this close in the middle of combat because a reaction like this would have been dangerous. I was stuck battling my senses, trying to force them down against every single instinct in my body that was screaming at me to pay attention to it.  
I moved a hand up to my mouth as a wave of nausea swept through my body. Shika gave me a look and I waved a hand. "Sensory overload."  
"Can't you just… turn it off, or at least ignore it?"  
"Normally, but right now it's just… freaking out a bit."  
His eyes went from me to the battle that was raging anew. "Is he using… you know?"  
"Yeah."  
"Shit."  
Ino's eyebrows raised curiously. "Sensory overload?"  
I nodded. "Being a high level sensor around a fight like this is sort of like… if somebody that has a sensitive nose stuck their face in a bucket filled with three day old fish. Incredibly overwhelming."  
"That's disgusting."  
"He's winning," Shika noted since I was no longer watching. "It's like it gave him some kind of speed boost."  
I couldn't exactly see what was happening, but even when I wasn't facing it I was keenly aware of the movement of their signatures, burning brightly behind me as they fought. The chakra building up as they fought was insane. Regardless of how much of a little asshole he may be right now, his ability to keep up with Naruto at all when he started pulling at Kurama's chakra was impressive. He definitely earned his title of prodigy.  
When Naruto did finally hit Neji, the force of the explosion set a rattle in my bones, sending me whipping around to observe the carnage. Two new craters marred the ground. Neji emerged from one, and a seemingly unconscious 'Naruto' was sprawled across the other. From the chakra, though, I knew it's just a clone. I could get a vague sense of where the real Naruto is waiting, hiding himself under the ground, waiting for the right time.  
"I actually thought he was going to win," Ino said. "Man."  
I shook my head. "No, that's not him."  
"Huh?"  
"It's a clone," I muttered. "The real Naruto's waiting."  
The crowd waited with baited breath. A few of the jonin in the crowd, who seemed to have recognized it the Naruto in the crater as a clone, started to smirk, shaking their head. Neji limped over to the other hole in the ground, an arrogant smirk across his lips. "I was correct all along. It is fate. I was fated to win, to show the true power - "  
Before he can finish Naruto bursts from beneath his feet with his fist outstretched, dust and debris flying through the air, nailing Neji in the jaw. Yeah, that had to hurt. Hayate, who was already making his way towards where the boys were, blinked in surprise and altered his course to where Neji had landed.  
The crowd, after they realized what had actually happened, burst into applause. Naruto gave a tired grin but he was going to need at least a couple of days before he would be back to normal. Damage to your chakra pathways was no joke even when you were a jinchuriki.  
Some medics hurried out to the field, gathering up Neji and leading Naruto off to get checked out. There was some amount of chatter in the Kage box as the Kazekage seemed to be arguing with our Hokage over postponing Sasuke's match.  
"They're going to disqualify him," Ino said miserably.  
Shika rolled his eyes. "He would have lost anyways," he drawled. "This is just saving us time."  
"No way, Sasuke's going to win!" Naruto shouted.  
I jumped at his voice. I turned around, narrowing my eyes at him. "What are you doing up here already?"  
"The medics said that I just need to get some sleep," he said with a mischievous grin. "Nothing that they can do for me."  
"I better not find out that you snuck away from them," I warned.  
"Awh, come on Kaka," he said.  
I opened my mouth to say something but Shika nudged me with his shoulder, pointing down to the field.  
"The match between Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara will be postponed until further notice," he said. The crowd jeered, but he held up a hand, quieting them. "We will move onto the next match as we await the arrival of one of the fighters. The next match will be Ino Yamanaka vs. Kankuro."  
I looked over to the boy and his lips pulled up in a crooked smirk. "I forfeit," he called down to Hayate.  
The crowd jeered in response and Hayate sighed. "Are you sure."  
"Yeah, I'd rather not lose to a girl in front of this many people."  
"What?" Ino screeched.  
He rolled his eyes at her. "Quiet down, you're being annoying."  
Ino bristled and I lay my hand on her arm. "Ignore him and take it for what it is," I said quietly. "He's an idiot and you get to advance without having to fight. You'll have an immediate advantage over your next opponent."  
Not that she'd be fighting them.  
She frowned but nodded.  
"Well… since Kankuro has forfeited, Ino Yamanaka is the winner by default. The next match will now begin, Kasumi Himura vs. Hatsu Akaida."  
The other girl shot me a dark look before turning to walk down the stairs. This was going to be interesting, then.  
"You can do it Kasu!"  
"Kick her ass," Shika said with a smirk.  
"Oh, don't you worry," I said, winking at him playfully. "I'm not losing this one."  
I made a quick hand seal and released the chakra from my weights, shaking out my limbs, getting a feel for the lightness of my unrestrained body again.  
If she was going to take the safe route then I'd just take the showy road. I hopped up on the railings, bunched up my legs and vaulted myself across the arena, landing on the far side, denting the ground where my feet touched down. The crowd roared with approval. I wasn't typically the type to make a fuss but this fight would be somewhat less nerve wracking if I had the crowd on my side.  
"Compensating for something with that entrance?" she sneered, but I could tell from her voice that her heart wasn't in it. "Like a lack of true skill, perhaps?"  
Trash talking was pretty standard practice for this sort of thing. Shinobi fights were almost as mental as they were physical. Intimidation was a damn fine tool when used properly and even a comment like that could be enough to set somebody's nerves high enough that it affects their performance. I could see what she was trying to do. She wanted to trick me into thinking that she was going to underestimate me, lull me into thinking I had the advantage of her being overconfident. I had a plan, though. I couldn't do scary in the conventional sense, being twelve, short even for my age, and a little girl - but I could shoot for vaguely unhinged.  
"The same lack of skill that I used to snap your teammates spine, you mean?" I asked innocently. "His bones made the most beautiful sounds when they broke. Tell me, Hat-chan, will yours be quite as nice?"  
"You're not going to find out," she said haughtily, the shift in her eyes hinting that I had at least taken her off guard. "I won't let you even get close enough to touch me."  
"Oh, sweetheart - I don't have to touch you to kill you," I purred, giving her a wild grin.  
Maybe I had gone further than vaguely unhinged. Oops.  
I slid my tessen out of their holsters and snapped them open, the clinking of metal as they unfolded like music to my ears. I'd have to at least be careful while I used these - I wanted to beat her not maim her. This was more of a test than anything. Spars were one thing, but this was a good chance to use them in real combat where I wasn't genuinely worried about losing my life. If they were inhibiting me more than helping me I could always put them away and use my bare hands, which was probably what was going to end up happening.  
Hatsu eyed them warily.  
Hayate stood between us. "Alright, you may begin when you're ready, and try not to kill each other," he said, giving me a pointed look, clearly directing that last line at me.  
My grin only grew at the comment while the Kusa girl hit the point of visibly unnerved.  
Feet firmly planted apart I held myself low, eyeing her carefully, waiting to see how she reacted to everything. She took a defensive stance. No matter how much I'd freaked her out, she wasn't stupid enough to do what her teammate had done. What a pity that was. I shifted my weight forward some, adjusting my hold on the tessen, and readied myself to attack.  
Well, no time like the present, right?  
I flew forward, my speed rivaling that of Lee's, tessen at the ready.  
The thing with this fight - I couldn't use that much chakra. One the invasion started I was going to need as much chakra as I could get because there was a lot of fighting ahead of me. I had to watch the amount of chakra I put in my limbs, use my bloodlimit sparingly, and most other jutsu were out of the question.  
She didn't bother trying to block, instead she got as much distance as she could between us, her hands flying into seals. "Earth Release: Disruptive Ground!"  
I nearly tripped as the ground beneath my feet turned to gelatin, soft and unsteady, definitely not something I wanted to fight on. Trying to engage somebody using taijutsu on ground that wasn't solid was just asking to lose. I paused for half a second before launching myself skyward, soaring overtop of her and landing in the leaves of one of the trees lining the edge of the arena, using a little chakra in my feet to stick the landing.  
Okay, new plan. I couldn't pull a stunt like during the preliminaries. Using half my chakra in one hit wasn't really an option, not only because I wasn't looking to waste that much chakra, but because I needed to actually fight this match. I did want that chunin promotion. There wasn't going to be another match for me, so I had to show at least some of what I can do in this match if I wanted a chance at it. Not that I really knew if I could. In the show Naruto and Sasuke both had incredible fights, yet the only person who got a promotion was Shika.  
"Hiding like a coward?" she shouted. "Come on out!"  
I slipped my hands through a couple of seals for the easiest genjutsu I knew. "I'm simply biding my time, little Hat-chan," I said, my voice booming all around the arena rather than just from the tree I was perched in.  
While she knew that I was there, the genjutsu compelled her to look around, confused despite herself. Her lips pulled back in a scowl and she dropped the earth release, her hands moving through a different set of seals.  
I slipped my tessen into their holsters and went through a few seals of my own.  
"Earth Release: Breath of the Earth!" she called.  
"Flawless Stealth," I whispered and dropped from the branches of the tree just as a barrage of boulders pounded it into kindling.  
I needed to hamper her mobility. She wasn't stupid enough to let me really get close to her unless I did something to stop her from being able to evade me. The rocks and wood had created a rather impressive cloud of dust that was masking my absence, but that would only last so long. The window to catch her by surprise wasn't that big and I was going to need it for what I had in mind.  
"Hah, that was a lot of big talk to be taken out by one jutsu," she called, though I could see her shoulders grow a bit tense.  
Before she could fully realize that she hadn't gotten me, I was on her.  
I approached from her left side and gathered chakra in my right heel. I raised my leg, dropped my bloodlimit, and slammed my heel onto the bone of her ankle, latching onto her elbow with both my hands. She screamed in both pain and surprise, but I wasn't done quite yet. My hips twitched, my foot grinding her heel into the ground and pinning her there, then my left foot collided with her knee to smash it to bits.  
It was reminiscent of what I'd done to Kin during the second part of the exam except considerably more efficient - Ebisu called it The Blender.  
In half a second I'd completely destroyed both her ankle and her knee.  
The problem with a move like that, though, was that it did give her a chance to react, which involved her driving a kunai directly into whatever her free arm was able to reach first. That happened to be my abdomen. There was a white hot pain and I reacted on instinct, throwing myself off of what was left of her leg with a yelp of pain, landing shakily a few yards away. I pressed a hand around the blade to try to stop some of the bleeding. Realistically, the trade off was in my favor.  
Hatsu staggered backwards from the force of being used as a springboard, her breathing ragged from the pain, her eyes blinking rapidly. I had a couple of seconds. I grit my teeth and yanked the blade out before it could further tear apart my insides, harshly biting down on my lip, ignoring the noises of the crowd around us. I lit my hand with green and jumped back further to give myself a few seconds, hastily trying to put a layer of skin over the gash. I didn't need to fully heal the wound, I just needed to keep from bleeding out.  
She managed some hand seals, balancing on her only good leg. "Oh, not a chance. Earth Release: Nature's Wrath!" she growled.  
The ground beneath me came to life. I inhaled sharply, dodging the human-sized vines that were springing up from the ground, yanking at my feet and smacking into me me as I tried to heal the wound in my gut. Narrowly I danced between them but every time one landed it sent a jolt through my body, knocking my hand away from what I was trying to heal, wasting my chakra and forcing it where it's not wanted.  
I ducked low, instantly having to push off the ground in a flip to move over another vine as it swing through the air, aiming where my head had been.  
"Where's all of that confidence now?" she called. "You got your little trick off, congrats. But I can tell you right now, you won't be getting another move in on me like that though."  
It was true. My bloodlimit was a bit of a one time trick. Once people knew it was coming, they'd just set up precautions against it. At least I'd made it count when I did use it.  
"Oh, fuck this," I bit out and let the green from my hand drop. I'd just have to end the fight before I bled out.  
I pulled out my tessen again and started slicing my way through the vines. As thick as they were my tessen cut through them like butter, leading me to believe Tenten was right when she said that these things could easily take somebody's limbs off. I spun, weaving my way across the jungle of vines that were growing around me, acutely aware that I was leaving a trail of blood as I went. I started to notice pretty quickly that the vines were growing faster than I could cut through them.  
This wasn't going to work.  
I poured chakra into my legs and bounded forward, ignoring the stinging of thorns scraping across my skin. I broke through the thick of it the jutsu and reached back into my pocket as I charged towards Hatsu, pulling out one of my poison tags, holding it behind my back to avoid giving it away. She steeled herself for my assault, unable to run away from it, but I merely dropped the tag at her feet and kept running, well out of the danger zone by the time it went off.  
The poison tags were a bit of a fun invention of mine, really. There were two seals involved: a storage seal and an explosive seal, making them a bit larger than normal tags to account for having two seals on one piece of paper. The storage seal was timed to go off a faction of a second before the explosive seal, so that the dust would be scattered, if a little singed from the heat, but not completely blown away. They were in no way perfect but for what little skill I had in fuinjutsu I was proud of it.  
I drew up my mask and pivoted on the spot, whipping back around to sprint in her direction. The poison had surrounded her completely. It was heavy, though, and it only took a few seconds to fall away. I'd yet to figure out why but when I put the poison in the tags, the chakra I had in the poison seemed to get burned away, leaving me without any control over the dust one it was actually airborne.  
"Wind Release: Gust of a Thousand Doves!" she called between hacking coughs, her lungs struggling to get oxygen through the thick cloud of dust.  
Air blew out from around her in a dome and scattered the poison through the air. I threw my arms up in an x-shape in front of my body, letting my forearms take the brunt of the powerful gust.  
She lashed out as I got in front of her. I raised the tessen in my left hand, redirecting her fist against it and twisted my shoulders, jamming my elbow into her chest. All the air from her lungs was forced out in a painful whoosh. I swung my outside leg around and viciously brought my foot down on her already shattered knee. She let out a cry of pain and I took a step back, a couple feet of space between us, leveling a glare at her.  
"Surrender."  
"Not a chance," she hissed.  
She went to move her hands into seals but I kicked out at them, stopping her before she could even finish the first seal. I snaked forward, channeling chakra into my fist and shattering her jaw on impact. She flew backwards, landing hard on her back, a small cry of pain coming from her body.  
I pounced forward, not wanting to give her even a sliver of a chance to get back up, using my knees to pin her hands, both of my tessen coming up to rest against her neck. Her eyes were growing unfocused from the sleeping poison. Even if she could get herself up she'd be out cold in maybe twenty seconds, max.  
"Surrender," I said, my voice firm and harsh.  
"Fuck you," she spat, her words broken and slurred.  
Literally, spat.  
Oh no.  
Not a chance.  
It was considered a courtesy to offer somebody the chance to give up. I knew the fight was over, she knew the fight was over, regardless of whether she would admit to it. Not only had I done it once but I'd done it twice. By this point, most other people probably would have just killed her. It would have been painfully easy for me to, but I saw no reason to do it, not when she was absolutely no threat to me.  
I had to admit it though, I kind of respected the nerves this girl had.  
I mean, I still hated her guts, there was no contesting that. I was just able to recognize a set of steel balls when I saw them.  
"You stupid bitch," I snarled.  
I dropped one of my tessen, brought my hand back, and swung. My first collided with her nose and the sound of her bones breaking echoed across the arena thanks to the acoustic seals that got placed in it. Her head snapped against the ground and blood gushed from her nose and she was out cold.  
That felt pretty fucking good.  
No matter what else I could do, sometimes nothing beat a classic punch in the face.  
I picked up my tessen and stood up, the applause of the crowd thundering in my ears, my chest heaving. I took a couple of steps back. That fight was over.  
I flicked my tessen shut and put them back in their holsters, curling an arm around my midsection, duly aware that I was still bleeding, and it still did hurt quite a bit. Yeah. Wow, that hurt. Funny how powerful of a pain reliever adrenaline is.  
Hayate didn't even bother to walk over to her before he said, "Winner, Kasumi Himura!"  
Medics rushed onto the field, two of them loading Hatsu onto a stretcher and one coming over to where I was, guiding my good arm around their waist while they wound another just under where the kunai had sunk into my skin. It was an awkward attempt to help support me because I was too short for them to just put my good arm over their shoulder.  
I could walk fine, honestly.  
I just didn't feel like protesting.  
They dragged me down below, healed the wound in two short minutes, bound the area just in case, then shoved me back up to the balcony so that I'd be able to fight again by the time Shika had finished his match. The kunai, while it went fairly deep, was very hastily stabbed into me, so Hatsu didn't get the chance to actually aim it at anything vital, meaning that it was an easy to heal wound. If she had nicked something important or caused internal bleeding then we would have had a major problem.  
I'd also managed to avoid using a really significant amount of chakra. I still had a little over half of my reserves waiting to be used, thankfully.  
Shika and Temari were about mid-way through their fight by the time I got back up there.  
"Kasu!" Naruto exclaimed, fidgeting on the spot. "Can I?"  
I held out my arms and he crushed me in a bear hug.  
Ino rolled her eyes but smiled at me. "How're you feeling?"  
"I've been better. How's the fight going?" I asked, leaning my forearms on the railing.  
She didn't look away from the fight, squinting some, thinking for a second before answering. "Badly, I think."  
"No way, Shikamaru's totally winning!"  
I snorted, but turned to Ino. "You think its going bad?"  
"He's just kind of… hiding behind a tree, he's not actually fighting, and she knows how to avoid his shadow technique."  
Even if I didn't know he could win this if he wanted to, I'd put my bet on Shika. I was kind of bummed I'd missed as much of the fight as I had. It was a battle of wits more than a 'who can kill the other first' kind of fight, both of the two intelligent strategists at their core.  
"Nah, I'm with Naruto on this one," I said.  
"Hah!" he said, grinning victoriously. "Two against one."  
"You brats are delusional," a voice said from my left. "Temari's got him on the ropes."  
I raised an eyebrow at Kankuro. "Eavesdropping?"  
"Just correcting you."  
"So definitely eavesdropping."  
Kankuro went to fire something back but Gaara only had to look at him to halt him dead in his tracks.  
I shook my head, forcing myself to focus on what was going on in the arena.  
A massive gale of wind tore through the arena, violently pushing against the trees, including the one Shika was hiding behind. He raised up his arm, bracing against the bits of her jutsu that managed to sneak over the side of the trunk. He held a kunai in one hand and his jacket in the other.  
From the memory I had of the fight, it was actually almost over. Shame.  
"You can't keep hiding forever," she shouted, breathing heavily. "Come out coward!"  
She swung her massive fan forward, sending wind crashing against the other side of the arena. Her foot very pointedly did not cross over the line she's drawn in the dirt. A massive plume of dust blossomed from the ground, and straight from the middle of it a kunai shot forward. Temari dodged to the side and then fell behind her fan, letting the second kunai clink off it harmlessly.  
Shika's chakra flared as he pushed his fingers into the rat seal, his shadow darting forward, moving faster than I remembered it. Maybe Asuma really had been putting them through the ringer. It could have even been Shikaku, though I didn't think the man had enough energy nor motivation to drag his son through a hellish training regiment.  
Temari stood behind her line, smug smirk on her face. Then the shadow crossed the line. She took a hasty step back, her eyes wide in surprise, just barely keeping enough distance to avoid the possession.  
"You're pretty quick on your toes," he said, stepping out from behind the tree.  
"Now I get it, that's what you've been up to," Temari said. "That wasn't just you hiding, that was you buying yourself some time. You're just waiting for the sun to lower, dragging out the shadow the wall behind you casts."  
Shika smirked.  
"Oh man, he almost had her," Ino said.  
"Just you wait," I murmured. "He's not done yet."  
Temari stood behind the line, watching warily as the shadow tried to stretch closer to her, her eyes going from the line in the ground to the sun up in the sky. The wind picked up. Off to her side, the kunai that Shika had tied his jacket to rose up off the ground.  
"Wait is that…" Kankuro muttered. His eyes widened. "Temari, above you!"  
She looked up just as Shika's shadow launched itself towards her. She pushed back, moving in a zig-zagged pattern, pointedly avoiding the shadow as it chased her, her gaze going between the kunai in the air and the shadow biting at her feet. She didn't seem to be looking where it was she was going - or rather, where it was that Shika was shifting her towards.  
The shadow seemed to reach its limit and the kunai hit the ground, removing the extra distance Shika was able to get on his shadow. Temari stood, unfolding her fan behind her in the same movement, her eyes narrowing on the boy across the arena from her, an arrogant smirk on her lips. She looked back up at the sun. Her arm reached back, bringing the fan in front of her and smashing it down into the ground, crouching behind it.  
Shika retracted his shadow, tricking her into a false sense of security. Her hands started to move into the seals to make a shadow clone, her chakra gathering up in her hands, and Shika took advantage of her momentary lapse in focus, forcing his shadow forward through the holes in the ground to sneak up behind her.  
"And that's game over," I said.  
Ino's eyes widened.  
"Wait, how?" Naruto cried.  
I jerked my head down just as Shika's hands dropped in front of him, a lazy smile on his face.  
"It finally worked," he drawled. "You held me off for a while, but my Shadow Possession finally caught you."  
"The hell did he do?" Kankuro wondered aloud, eyes wide.  
In the stands, I could see Asuma and Kurenai both staring down in surprise, Cho beside them munching furiously.  
"Look behind you, I'll let you," Shika said, turning his head to the side. She did so, her expression frozen, the rest of her posture mimicking his. "Recognize it? That's the hole where Naruto popped out of the ground to nail Neji. The hole in front is where he went in. They're connected."  
"Now I see it," she bit out. "I didn't even consider the shadows underground."  
"And that was your mistake," he said.  
He walked forward, forcing her to follow his movements. She glared at him, visibly struggling against the hold, not that it did her much good.  
"Yeah! He pulled it off, in your face Ino!" Naruto shouted, throwing a fist in the air.  
"Whatever Naruto," Ino said and stuck her tongue out at him. "It doesn't matter 'cause he got her!"  
Shika raised his hand.  
Oh, please don't do what I know you're going to do.  
"That's it, I give," he said.  
Damn it.  
Temari's expression was absolutely priceless. If there was anything good that came out of him pulling this stupid stunt, it was the look her her face.  
"Huh?" Ino and Naruto cried. The entire crowd seemed to echo the sentiment.  
"I'm going to fucking kill him," I muttered.  
"What?" Temari exclaimed. "What the hell did you just say?"  
Hayate eyed Shika curiously, inclining his head.  
"I used up all my chakra on the possession jutsu," Shika explained. "I'm good for about another ten seconds, that's it. Bummer. I'd already planned out the next 200 moves in my head and everything, but I'm low on chakra."  
"You've got to be kidding me," Temari murmured.  
Shika gave a shrug. "Anyways, even if I did win this thing, it'd just mean more work for me."  
He was low on chakra, that much was true. However, he certainly had more than enough to hold the jutsu for more than ten seconds, if it would drain his chakra at the same rate as it had been, and I had no doubt in my mind that he gave up was because he didn't want to take on the responsibility of chunin. Lazy to the end.  
Hayate rolled his eyes, hands in his pockets. "Well then. I guess the winner is Temari."  
"I'm going to fucking kill him," I repeated.  
"Not if I get to him first," Ino said.  
"We'll both go at him," I said. "Good compromise."  
"Sounds like a deal to me."  
Up in the Kage box there seemed to be an argument ensuing. I watched curiously, very pointedly ignoring the twisted chakra I felt emanating from the 'Kazekage'. There was a short discussion before somebody was sent out to speak to Hayate who frowned but nodded at whatever he had been told.  
Gaara turned, striding down the stairs without being asked, killing intent pulsing off of him before the fight even had a chance to start. I watched him leave out of the corner of my eye. I followed his signature as it made its way down towards the arena, right to where he encountered the two Kusa nin attempting to fix the match.  
One second, their signatures were there.  
The next, they had both flickered out.  
There wasn't a second of hesitation.  
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and forced myself to face forward, tuning out Ino and Naruto bickering beside me.  
"Alright, Sasuke Uchiha has been given five minutes to arrive at the arena. If at the end of the five minutes he is not in the arena, he will be disqualified," Hayate rasped.  
The five minutes ticked by. The crowd shifted restlessly, Naruto chatting in my ear the entire time while I let my senses wander, waiting for the two of them to show up. There were literal seconds left before I felt the pop of chakra just below us and Sasuke strolled onto the field. Hayate gave him an unimpressed look but the crowd roared, excited to finally get the fight that so many had been long awaiting.  
I could feel Kakashi-sensei's chakra flicker up to my left, standing next to Asuma and Kurenai in the crowds. I threw him a glare. He gave me a cheeky one fingered wave, not terribly bothered. Though I did note his eye seemed to wander around the arena, scanning it, as if taking stock of the people around him.  
They had to know it was coming. But how?  
Gaara staggered out into the arena, one hand on his head, his chakra signature was in a frenzied panic of pain and emotion. That's right, headaches. He was thinking of his mother. Kankuro shifted nervously from beside me, hands curling into fists at his side, watching his brother as he moved forward and muttering something that I couldn't understand.  
Naruto was shouting in excitement. Ino was watching the two boys square off in the center of the arena nervously, half an eye flicking over in my direction, trying to gauge how I was reacting. I kept my face clear. From where he was Hayate shot the Suna boy a careful look. Even from where I was standing, I could feel the killing intent drifting out from him.  
"Begin."  
They didn't start fighting, though. They stood and eyed each other up. Two highly skilled fighters, evaluating each other, Sasuke's expression stony even as his chakra signature began to shift erratically, getting a dose of the killing intent Gaara seemed to ooze unconsciously.  
Though I tried, I struggled to focus on the conversation between the two and the eventual fight. I was already thinking about the invasion. I could feel Kabuto's chakra, just behind where I knew Kakashi-sensei and the rest of the Konoha jonin-sensei's had gathered.  
Stupid asshole.  
What would happen once the invasion started, though?  
Frankly I had no shot of stopping whatever was going on in the Kage box. Me trying to do anything in that fight was like fighting a machine gun with a toothpick. It would end poorly, there really wasn't much I could do there.  
I glanced back, mentally tracing the path they took. They'd lead me some ways away from where Kakashi-sensei was going to be, especially considering I was going to have to fight my way over there, meaning they probably weren't the ideal option to getting up there.  
Then came the question of who was going to come with me on the fun little adventure that was chasing a mentally unstable jinchuuriki. In the show, it had only been Naruto, Sakura, and Shika. Could I take other people with me? It's not like it could hurt anything. I wasn't changing it, per se, just stacking things further in our favor.  
Waking somebody from a genjutsu, while unpleasant for them, wasn't too difficult. A bit of chakra into the nervous system was typically sufficient. I could do that fairly easily, which opened up some doors for me that hadn't been open for Sakura. As well, from what I could tell at least, there were more people kicking around that I could bring along for the mission.  
Up in the stands, Cho was sitting with Asuma, in perfect condition to fight. Kiba and Hinata were both beside him. I blinked. Hadn't they gone to the hospital after Neji's fight? Interesting… whatever, it didn't matter. Hinata was definitely still too injured to try and fight but Kiba wasn't, making him a viable option to bring along. Ino was also in peak condition having not even fought her round for the day. Already that was three extra people I could try and bring along with me. I wouldn't be taking any fighters away from the arena, either, because I doubted any of them would be able to break a genjutsu this strong on their own yet.  
This would be interesting.  
Sure, things would work out just fine if it was only Shika, Naruto, and I going along - that didn't mean I couldn't play it a bit on the safe side. Besides, without Shino chasing off with them that left Sasuke to try and fight all on his own against the three, not a good position for him to be in.  
"There you are!" Ino screeched, pulling me from my thoughts.  
I noticed that Kankuro had disappeared. I felt around, noting his chakra seemed to be wavering down near the arena, Temari's next to him. Also interesting. They'd get a pretty large head start on us like this.  
Shika strolled back into the box with his hands in his pockets. He rolled his eyes. "Here I am."  
I reached out, smacking him upside the head without even thinking about it. Oh, yeah - I was still pissed that he'd forfeited. He jerked back, hand going to his head, giving me an annoyed glare. "Out of chakra my ass," I muttered. "Lazy idiot."  
"Kami, woman," he muttered, though he didn't try and refute what I had said. "How's the fight going?"  
That was a good question. I turned back around, taking a look at what had happened so far.  
"Sasuke's been pounding away at Gaara's sand," I said. "He hasn't had a chance to get any kind of actual damage on Gaara yet."  
Sasuke had been assaulting Gaara with taijutsu in a style that was greatly influenced by Lee. It made sense considering the fact that even though Lee lost, he had come as close to actually beating Gaara as anybody had before.  
"He's fast," Shika commented.  
"Yeah," I said. "Sensei must have drilled him into the ground with taijutsu training."  
"He's still losing though," Naruto said. His lips were pulled down, his eyes wide with concern. He'd started to realize that this wasn't a fight Sasuke could really win. "If Sasuke's not careful, Gaara's gonna kill him!"  
"They'd stop it before it got that far," Ino said. She looked over at Shika and I. "Right?"  
"They'd try to," I replied slowly.  
"You say that like he's strong enough our jonin wouldn't stop him," Ino said with a nervous laugh. "He's scary but he's not that bad. He can't be, he's just a genin!"  
Naruto and Shika exchanged a glance, clearly flashing back to what happened in the hospital. I watched the match unfold. Sasuke darted between blasts of sand, dispatching the waves of clones Gaara sent after him, inching his way closer to the jinchuuriki. His taijutsu had come an impressively far way. I was fairly sure that if it was an exclusively taijutsu spar I'd still win, though he'd probably give me a run for my money if he was able to draw it out.  
Finally, Sasuke got up close and personal, slamming a fist into Gaara's jaw. He looked like he wanted to try for another but logic got the better of him and he darted out of the way before Gaara could retaliate. He ran around, going at Gaara from another angle, refusing to let him gather up enough sand to form a proper defense. He seemed to be burning through a fair amount of chakra to maintain that kind of speed, not a huge deal for him given his reserves were large, but still enough that I could notice it.  
Sasuke's chest was heaving by the time he managed to crack the sand armor.  
Gaara stumbled away from him, raising a hand to the crack, eyes wide.  
"You cracked my armor," he observed.  
"I did," Sasuke said. "Now I'm going to rip it to shreds."  
"I'm going to kill you," Gaara stated.  
His sand retracted from the ground, pooling underneath him, raising him up off the ground. Sasuke eyed him warily, his posture shifting into something more defensive. The sand didn't snake out and attack him, instead rising up, curling its form around Gaara in a cocoon, the near impenetrable sand shield.  
Sasuke charged forward, raining down blows on the shield but he couldn't even put a dent in it, having to narrowly dodge the spikes that shot out of it in defense of Gaara.  
Then I felt it.  
Dark, angry chakra, an ancient power that drove my chakra senses wild.  
Gaara was trying to transform, using the shield as a way to buy himself the time to do it.  
"What's he doing under there?"  
"He's… he's using it's chakra," I murmured. "He's using a lot of its chakra."  
"What? Who's chakra?" Ino asked. "What on earth are you talking about?"  
I felt the nausea build up in my stomach and my head start to pound but I couldn't look away, not even when Sasuke started to gather his own chakra up in his hand.  
"The hell is that?" Naruto asked. "I've… I've never seen him use that jutsu before."  
"That's why Kakashi-sensei wanted him far from the village," I said. "He's putting a ridiculous amount of chakra into that thing."  
Sasuke didn't stop channeling chakra until nearly half his reserves were gathered up in his hand, the lightning moving up along his arm. That explained the bandages - that much chakra was as dangerous to the user as it was to their opponent. I had more success at suppressing my chakra senses, forcing them down and away, but it was still nearly blinding for me to watch as Sasuke charged forward.  
The Uchiha ran forward, arm down, tearing up the ground as he got closer and closer to the mass of sand, grunting from the strain. His arm collided with the sand and there was a flash as it disappeared into its depths. I turned away on instinct, feeling like somebody had just stuck a flashlight in front of my eyes.  
Then, there came the cry.  
"Blood!" he screamed. "It's my blood!"  
He sounded terrified. Beneath the psychotic mass murderer, he was, at the end of the day, a twelve year old boy who had never bled in his entire life.  
Then the feathers started to rain down from the sky.  
I didn't hesitate to form my fingers into the seal and call, "Kai!"  
A lot of things happened all at once.  
There was an explosion of smoke from the Kage box, signaling that that fight was raging.  
Kankuro and Temari surged forward, leading Gaara out of a hole that some Suna nin had made to infiltrate the arena. Sasuke had his Sharingan activated, making the genjutsu completely useless against him, holding his arm to his chest as he recovered from using Chidori. The three sand siblings flew out of the arena and after shaking himself off Sasuke was hot on their trail.  
Up above us I could feel a mass of signatures crashing through into the arena, the clash of metal signalling that those fights had begun. Most of the signatures were chunin level, a few genin and a few jonin tossed in here and there, typical for an invasion force. I could feel Kabuto fighting up there as well.  
Beside me, Shika's eyes were somewhat glazed over but he was fighting against the genjutsu. Naruto and Ino were both out like lights. By the time anybody jumped down to try and attack the three of them, Shika would have thrown the genjutsu off enough that he'd be able to defend the other two.  
I hopped up on the railing, bunched my knees and launched myself straight up, putting a bit of chakra into my feet to scale the rest of the wall. I got to the top and grabbed onto the railing, swinging myself around, my foot extended to catch whoever was standing on the other side of it off guard. The kick connected hard on something. I let go of the railing, flying over a few feet.  
Thankfully, I'd hit an enemy.  
A chunin who had been fighting him nodded their thanks before calling, "Duck!"  
You see, no matter what's happening around you, during a fight, if somebody tells you to duck, you duck. I dropped down and a kunai sailed over my head, embedding itself in the neck of a Oto nin a couple of feet away.  
"Nice shot," I complimented before jumping away towards where Kakashi-sensei was fighting.  
Of course nobody was going to just let me waltz through a warzone.  
I got about halfway there when I heard the whoosh of something sailing towards me. I dropped again, only barely avoiding half a fucking sword as it whizzed through the air, going fast enough that instead of bouncing off the concrete ground when it landed the metal shattered.  
I whipped out my tessen, turning to face my opponents.  
There were two in front of me, roughly high genin to low chunin level, and one that was trying to sneak up on me from behind, a low power chunin. I waited for the last second to flick on my bloodlimit, ducking around him and slashing my tessen against his neck like a pair of scissors. I didn't even think to turn off the bloodlimit before they connected. Amazingly, I felt no drain on my chakra of taking something else under the bloodlimit, meaning that something like weapons coming into contact didn't count. Interesting.  
His head rolled off his shoulders, blood spurting out from his neck, and his body crumbled to the ground at my feet.  
One.  
I didn't think about the fact that I'd just killed somebody.  
I couldn't think about the fact that I'd just killed somebody.  
There was an invasion.  
There were two more people in front of me who wanted to kill me, whose lives I now had to end as well.  
I felt no guilt. I felt no regret.  
I was a shinobi - those were luxuries we couldn't afford.  
My bloodlimit flicked off and I gave the two men standing across from me a razor sharp grin. "Care to play?"  
The two rushed at me, prepared to attack at once. I turned on my bloodlimit and clamped my left tessen shut, letting my weight fall forward to slip between the legs of the closest one. Putting a bit of chakra in my heel to anchor me as I whipped back around, letting the momentum of the movement drive my tessen into the side of his neck. There was a horrifying squelching sound as I yanked it back out and snapped it open again, ignoring the blood that stained the previously glistening metal.  
Two.  
I put a bit of space between me and the other one before turning my bloodlimit off again. The last one's eyes burned angrily and he threw a reckless punch that I flowed around. His other leg flashed towards me in a kick that I spun underneath, extending my arm and slicing his other leg off as I came back around. His body fell back at the sudden loss of the only thing supporting it, screaming in pain, his head cracking against the concrete - if he didn't die from the initial landing, he'd die from bloodloss shortly.  
Three.  
I felt somebody at my back as I went to stand and awkwardly dove sideways, grabbing at the edge of a seat to flip myself around in a shaky handstand. I bent my arms and pushed off, arcing through the air to land off behind my new attacker, letting out a breath.  
Chunin. Mid level. Given his wicked katana and the kodachi strapped to his back pinning him as a kenjutsu specialist was easy.  
He spun around, katana raised in the air, slicing downwards at my face. I raised my tessen up, crossing them and blocking the blow, shoving up against him to knock the blade away from me. He went with it, letting the blade go up before he brought it downwards in a diagonal slash. I shuffled back, the force of the blade sending a wave of air sharp enough that I felt it cut across my cheek, blood dripping from the wound. Awesome. I was now in a very bad position, my back against the railing.  
His whole body lurched forward and extended his arm outwards to stab at me. I let my weight fall as the blade drove into the air where my head had been, rolling to the side as he followed my movements to catch me in the arm with the tip of the blade. It was a shallow enough cut that I was better off saving my chakra, but still. Ending off in a crouch I threw the entirety of my weight forward, my shoulders slamming into his knees to knock him off balance.  
I turned on my bloodlimit before he could recover and bought myself a couple of seconds to get back up, shutting my tessen and shoving it through his heart. His mouth opened in horror and his katana clattered from his grip. I wrenched the tessen out and turned off the bloodlimit.  
Four.  
I was getting too low on chakra for this.  
Since I had a couple of seconds of peace I dropped down, wiping off the stained tessen on the guy's shirt.  
Before anybody else could try and pick a fight with me I took off towards where Kakashi-sensei was busy fighting six enemies at once, sharingan blazing. I hopped forward, dancing through the maze of already ongoing fights and dead bodies and unconscious bodies and everything inbetween. It was pure chaos. There wasn't anyway to really say whether or not anybody had gotten the upper hand so far.  
By the time I actually got over to where Kakashi-sensei was there were only two enemies left, though both of them looked like they'd rather be fighting anybody else but him. I reached for the one closest to me, yanking on the back of his shirt and slamming his back against my knee, snapping it clean in half. The other looked to me in surprise and Kakashi-sensei darted forward, stabbing him in the side of the neck with a kunai. I let the guy roll off my knee and brought my heel down on his throat, crushing his windpipe.  
Five.  
"Hey, kid," he said cheerily. He took in my blood-stained attire and minor injuries, inclining his head. "You've been busy."  
I blinked at him. "Yeah."  
"Well I hope not too busy, because I've got a mission for you," he said. "I need you to go keep your teammate from getting himself killed."  
"So pretty much a typical day for me," I said.  
"It's an A-rank mission. Sasuke's chasing Gaara and the other sand nin. Given what happened with him, he's going to be a target right now for the invading forces. I need you to take Naruto and Shikamaru with you and bring Sasuke back. It's probably best that you don't get too involved, given who you'd be fighting, though like I said, the hope is that you bring him back alive. Do what you have to do, just be careful."  
I chewed my bottom lip. "Just Naruto and Shikamaru?"  
He contemplated that for a second. "Genin," he settled on. "We can't spare fighters. Any genin you can round up in the next five minutes are fair game, but you have to hurry. The more time you waste the more time Sasuke's out there on his own."  
"Got it," I muttered, heart beating a mile a minute. I opened my senses, eyes flying around the arena, hunting for who I had planned on bringing along with me. "Ok. Yeah. I got it."  
Kakashi-sensei brought his hand down against the concrete and there was a small puff of smoke. In front of him a pug appeared, scratching at his ear with his hind leg before glancing up at me with those big eyes, curious.  
"They've probably gotten well out of your range by this point, so Pakkun will track Sasuke by his scent," he said. "When you're ready he'll lead you in the right direction."  
Despite myself and everything around me I couldn't help but run a hand down the little dog's head, grinning. Holy shit was he ever cute.  
"Wanna shake?" he asked, lifting his leg up in front of him. I gently grabbed his tiny little paw - holy fucking shit it's so soft and adorable - in my fingers and moved it up and down. Pakkun turned his head to Kakashi-sensei. "I like this one."  
There was a hint of amusement in sensei's eyes as he asked, "All clear?"  
"Uh huh."  
"Off you go then!"  
And then he was gone, flashing over to continue fighting off the waves of Suna and Oto nin streaming into the arena.  
I reached out to grab at Pakkun, my hands stopping an inch away from him. "May I?"  
"Be my guest."  
I grabbed him, securely tucking him into the front of my shirt and gave him a little pat on the head before taking off. He was too tiny to try and run around amidst all this and we still needed to get back to the box where the others were.  
Kiba was the closest one to me out of all of them.  
I didn't try fighting anybody else on my way over to him, dodging and ducking away from anybody who tried to engage me, letting the others deal with them. We didn't have enough time. Getting stopped by those four earlier had taken up enough of my time by this point, Sasuke and the sand siblings were well out of my range.  
I approached the guy Kiba was fighting from behind. The man's shoulders tensed, sensing that something was behind him. Before he could react I closed my tessen and drove it through his heart from behind, jerking it back, taking a step to the side as the body fell backwards.  
Six.  
Kiba looked at me with wide eyes. "Holy hell," he breathed. "The fuck happened to you?"  
Huh? I glanced down at my clothes and wrinkled my nose in disgust. They were stained by splotches of deep crimson, torn and scuffed up from the amount of rolling I'd done, and just generally in bad shape. I was only a little scraped up but I didn't feel any of it. "Not mine," I said, pointed to the blood.  
He nodded. "What's going on?"  
"Invasion," I said, glancing around. We needed to hurry. "And I need your help. We have a mission. I don't have time to explain, but I need you to go and wait with Shika, Naruto, and Ino while I grab Choji."  
His eyes went down to the girl unconscious in her seat next to him. Hinata. Of course, that's why he hadn't really gone far - she was injured and in true Inuzuka fashion, he wasn't going to want to just leave her here on her own. Hell, I didn't want to leave her here on her own, but I needed the backup. "What about Hinata?"  
Fuck. There wasn't time for this. What could I say?  
"She'll be fine," I said. Was that even true? My mind was whizzing, I didn't have time to try and think about that. "The Konoha nin who are around aren't giving them a chance to go at anybody unconscious. We're probably going to win this battle, but if we don't move soon Sasuke's going to lose his. Please."  
He took a second to process before he nodded again. "Yeah, okay." He glanced around, bending down. "Akamaru, here boy."  
There was a small yip before Akamaru appeared in front of him and jumped up onto his head.  
"Try and wake Ino and Naruto if they're not already up," I said. "I'll be there in a minute."  
No time, no time.  
I didn't wait for a reply, darting off to the left where Cho was still out cold in his seat, chip bags scattered around him. He would take a minute to actually get up, a minute that we didn't have at this point. Holstering my tessen I gathered some chakra in my hand and pressed it against his back until his signature started to jolt around. He groaned, shifting in his seat. Good enough. I grabbed him around his midsection and hefted him over my shoulder, ignoring the grumblings from Pakkun about there being a foot in his face, my attention being pulled over to the balcony where everybody had gathered.  
There was a mass of people between the box and me.  
My eyes went to the side of the arena and I suppressed a groan - this was going to suck.  
I ran in a zig-zag, unable to deflect any of the potshots people were taking at me as I ran across the wall, spitting curses as I want.  
"Fuck, shit… fuck!" I let myself drop a couple of feet as somebody threw a cracked chunk of plastic - is that the back of a fucking seat? - at me, the sharp point of it sticking into the concrete wall just above my head. "Ohh… fuck, fuck, fuck…"  
"Boss said his brats were interesting," Pakkun said. "I didn't think this was what he meant."  
I ignored him. I was not going to get into an argument with a dog.  
Shika and Kiba were both fighting by the time I got back to where they were. Shika had two locked in a shadow possession while Kiba was fighting off the third, engaging him with taijutsu while Akamaru tore into the enemies ankles.  
"Incoming!" I shouted.  
I planted my hand on the edge of the wall with a bit of chakra and vaulted myself into the small box, plowing through the two Shika had trapped in his jutsu, throwing said boy off his feet as well, cutting off the shadow possession. Cho tumbled out of my grasp, landing splayed on top one of the enemies, easily holding him down on the ground. Pakkun hopped out of my shirt and started sniffing around at Ino and Naruto. I hopped to my feet, catching the other opponents hand as he want to strike out at Shika, using some chakra and kicking up in a near-full split to send my heel into his jaw. I felt his arm jolt out of his socket as the rest of his body was violently shoved backwards. I twisted his arm in my hold and threw him as hard as I could, his head colliding with the railing, cracking open from the force.  
Seven.  
The other one had managed to get Cho off of him but Shika was keeping him busy. Instead of grabbing for my tessen I yanked a kunai out of its holster. I jumped on the guy's back, my legs straddling his chest, one hand reaching up to yank on his hair while the other crossed over his neck to slit his throat open.  
Eight.  
I pushed myself off his back, the body tumbling to the ground in front of me. I turned to deal with the last one just as Kiba shoved his face into the concrete, following up with a kunai to the back of the neck.  
"Okay," I breathed. Belatedly, I turned to Shika, mustering the closest thing I could to an apologetic smile - I had knocked him down pretty hard with my entrance. "Sorry."  
He nodded uneasily, taking in my rather unpleasant appearance. "Don't worry bout it. You good?"  
"Yeah, the cuts are minor and none of the blood on my clothes is mine," I said. "Any luck with Naruto and Ino?"  
"None," Kiba said.  
Shika moved over to Cho, helping him sit up. Okay. One person was awake. I hurried over to the two of them, gathering chakra in both my hands and shoving it into their systems, waiting for their signatures to show activity. Ino started to come out of it before Naruto. By the time Naruto started to wake up, I was really feeling the strain on my chakra, sitting back on my heels and rubbing at my eyes tiredly.  
And the day had only really just begun.  
"Okay," I murmured. "Cho, how you feeling?"  
He rubbed his head nervously but said, "I'm good."  
I turned to the other boys. "Either of you injured?"  
"Nah," Kiba said.  
"I'm not," Shika said. "Just a bit low on chakra."  
I fished through my pockets, pulling out a bottle and holding it out to them. "Soldier pills. We've got a ways to go."  
Shika grabbed one and Kiba pulled out two. "One for me, one for Akamaru," he explained.  
I shrugged. There were a few left still. Ino probably wouldn't need one and Naruto definitely wasn't going to, so Sasuke was going to be the only one who would potentially use one as well, depending on whether or not he was badly injured.  
"Fuck, we need to move," I muttered. "Can you guys each grab one of them? If we wait any longer we're going to lose the trail."  
They looked to each other and nodded. Shika grabbed Ino and Kiba grabbed Naruto, Akamaru planting himself on his partner's head. Pakkun jumped back up onto my lap and I tucked him into the front of my shirt again.  
Time to go.  
"How are we gonna do this?" Kiba asked.  
"Good question," I said. "Any suggestions?"  
"I don't even know what's going on," Shika offered, vaguely annoyed.  
"Invasion. Gaara's got something goin on with him, Sasuke chased after him. A-rank mission, we're going to drag his ass back here before he gets himself killed."  
Shika opened his mouth to say something but it clicked shut and he just nodded, adjusting Ino on his back. "We can go through the arena and stick to one side of it. Kas, you'll have to run interference for whatever gets thrown at us as we run."  
I stood, flicking my tessen open. "I can do that." A plan. I liked plans. "On three."  
My heart was racing.  
"One, two… three!"  
We burst out at once. Kiba and Shika hugged the left side of the arena and I sprinted off beside them, knocking away projectiles with my tessen. I owed Tenten a huge, massive hug, because holy shit were these things ever coming in handy. We got out of the arena without much trouble, thankfully. The second we broke through Pakkun raised his nose and started sniffing.  
He raised a paw from my shirt and pointed to the left. "That way."  
To avoid the fighting in the streets we travelled via rooftop. Naruto and Ino started to really wake up once we had started off on that way.  
Ino let out a yawn, blearily opening her eyes. "Hey… why are you carrying me?"  
"We're in a hurry, Kas recruited you for a mission," Shika said. "I'm not really sure what's happening either."  
"I'll explain more once Naruto's awake," I said. "I'm not in the mood to go over it twice."  
Ino looked at me and her hand went to her mouth. "Oh my…"  
I gave her a severe look. "If you say a word about how shitty I look…"  
"I was going to ask if you were alright!" she cried, outraged.  
"Not my blood," I said blandly.  
"Kas," Shika said warningly.  
"Come on ladies, play nice," Kiba chided, giving us a crooked grin that didn't make it to his eyes.  
They were terrified. I was terrified. They were kids being sent up against a massive power that only Naruto really had the firepower to go up against, and he hadn't even woken up yet. Only I knew really that Naruto could do it, too - Shika and Cho knew he had Kurama, but they didn't really understand what that meant for him while Kiba and Ino had no idea. Tensions were high and I wasn't helping any by lashing out like that.  
Deep breath in. Deep breath out.  
"Sorry, I'm just being a bitch," I mumbled and cleared my throat. "I'm fine. The cuts are minor and like I said, other people's blood on my clothes. It's been… a chaotic experience."  
It'd really only been what, ten minutes? At the most? It felt like an eternity had passed.  
She nodded and wiggled against Shika's back until he paused to let her off.  
"Wha… whas goin' on," Naruto mumbled sleepily, cracking half an eye open. "What smells so bad?"  
Kiba unceremoniously dropped him off his back. "Excuse me?"  
"What did you just finish telling me?" I asked him.  
I dropped back to help Naruto up and put an extra jolt of chakra into his system to speed things up some. He jumped and gave me a startled look, eyes moving across my clothes. "What the hell is going on?"  
"Not my blood, because I know you're going to ask," I said hurriedly. "You were put under a sleeping genjutsu, I was using my chakra to help your system fend it off. I just have a lot to explain and we need to move."  
His face sobered up - he knew that tone. "Alright."  
We took off at a pace I was finally comfortable with. We were also getting further away from where the majority of invaders were, and the ache at the back of my head was starting to subside, my chakra senses finally getting some amount of a break.  
"Okay. During Sasuke's match with Gaara, somebody put a genjutsu on the entire arena," I began. "Oto and Suna are attacking. When the attack started, Gaara and his siblings fled, Sasuke chasing after them."  
"What? Is he nuts?" Naruto yelped, cutting in before I could keep going. "Gaara's gonna kill him!"  
"Let me finish."  
"Sorry."  
"I could sense that there was a genjutsu being put on me so I was able to fend it off pretty much right away. Shika seemed to have been coming around too, so I left you both with him and went to help out with the fight above. I met up with Kakashi-sensei and he told me to round up any genin I could get my hands on and try to bring Sasuke back. Should Sasuke resist coming back, it's up to us what kind of assistance we provide him with."  
"So what's with the dog?"  
"I have a name," Pakkun sniffed.  
"This is Pakkun," I said. "He's one of Kakashi-sensei's ninken. He's helping us track Sasuke into the forest since they're out of my range."  
"Do you have a plan?" Kiba asked. "You are the team leader."  
"Sorta."  
"Sorta?" he burst out. "How can you sorta have a plan?"  
"Hey, I'm not exactly the most experienced with missions!" I said indignantly. "I'm just kind of going with it, here."  
"They're probably going to come at us separately," Shika said before it could turn into an actual argument. "Temari and Kankuro, I mean. If they're trying to help Gaara get away, they'll probably cut off from him to try and slow us down once they realize we're pursuing."  
Right.  
Teams, then?  
Ino, Shika, and Cho were best put together. They knew how each other worked and since Ino and Cho hadn't fought yet it would help with making up for the fact that Shika had. The obvious choice for them was to fight Temari, given Shika on his own could beat her, giving the three of them a pretty high chance for success.  
That left Naruto, Kiba and I to go against Kankuro, which was also a better choice. It left us without a ton of range but I'd just have to hope that the three of us would be able to compensate for that by not giving Kankuro a chance to get too far off of us.  
I nodded. "Yeah. Cho, Ino, and Shika, I want you three to go at Temari. Shika you beat her earlier, you know how she's going to fight better than any of us. Naruto, Kiba, and I will take on Kankuro. If we have to split, I want you three to take Pakkun since either Kiba or I'll be able to track you guys down without him."  
"Kas, are you - " he stopped short when I shot him a pleading look. I was running on nerve and adrenaline at this point. I didn't have it in me to argue. "Got it."  
"Temari's main focus are her wind releases that she uses with her fan. You'll want to close in on her as much as possible, don't give her a chance to push you off of her. From what I could tell, she's fast and she seems to have at least a solid foundation in taijutsu. She may have already had one fight today, but don't underestimate her," I said. Then came Kankuro. Pretty much nothing about him was known to them, but I had a wealth of background information to pull from. "Given that Kankuro didn't fight yet, there isn't really much I can say about him other than he uses a puppet in combat."  
"He… he smelt weird," Naruto offered hesitantly, glancing at me. "Kind of like how you smell sometimes, after you've been working on your own during training."  
"Poisons," I said immediately. "Not a huge surprise there, Suna is known for them. If we fight him, should either of you start to feel anything wrong, you have to tell me. He's going to be pulling out the lethal stuff and I'll need to act fast if either of you get a significant dose of it. Clear?"  
"Yeah."  
"Gotcha'."  
"And that brings us to Gaara," I sighed. "He's the host of the one-tailed beast, meaning trying to engage him is just a very, very bad idea. I'm pretty sure he's able to harness that chakra without too much struggle, given that he was pulling on it pretty heavily just before the invasion started up. Depending on who gets there first, don't try and engage him. Try and talk Sasuke off of fighting him if he still is by the time we get there, and try not to let him get killed… but if he's refusing to back down, don't try and interfere."  
I shot a look towards Naruto that clearly said 'except you'. His eyes met mine and he gave a brief nod. I knew he had Kurama, as did Shika and Cho, but none of the others did, and there wasn't time to try and explain why Naruto was the only one out of all of us that could potentially take Gaara in a fight.  
"No way am I going to leave Sasuke like that!" Ino shouted.  
"What? We can't just let him die!" Kiba cried. "The hell kind of teammate are you?"  
"A realistic one," I said harshly. "I know what Sasuke's capable of and I know what Gaara's capable of. If Sasuke won't back down, Gaara will kill anybody who gets in his way. Do your best to get him out but don't let him get you killed. Sasuke's stubborn, not stupid, but I don't know what kind of state of mind he's in right now given he chased after Gaara in the first place. If all goes as planned, that won't even be a possibility, I'm just saying - don't fuck around with this guy."  
He wasn't happy about it but Kiba agreed.  
"Hey, kids, I hate to interrupt," Pakkun said. "But we're being followed."  
Oh shit. Yeah, that's a thing.  
I opened up my senses. Nine signatures were following us. "Fuck… there's nine of them. Six chunin, three genin."  
"Nine?" Naruto cried.  
"That's bad," Kiba said. "What are we going to do?"  
I reached into my back pocket, pulling out the headsets I had stashed in there. I took one for myself and handed the rest off to Kiba. "Each of you take one. It'll help us keep in contact. Since I'm the only one who can actually fight a group of people, I'll split off and take them, the rest of you continue on."  
"Kasu no way, I won't just let you - "  
"Naruto, I'm a big girl," I said weakly, a light tease in my tone, shooting him a meaningful look. "I can handle it. Besides, no offense, but I'm probably the only one here with the nerve to actually kill nine people."  
Hah. Who would have thought I was the optimist?  
That last part was a bit harsh but probably true. Kiba had finished off a couple, but none of the others had killed anybody else before. I'd taken three lives in the second part of the exam, and eight - oh Kami, eight people - had fallen at my hands today. I wasn't happy about it, not one bit. Truth be told, I was probably going to be haunted by nightmares for the next week and there was a nagging hollowness in my chest that I'd been shoving aside since the invasion started. But I could do it. And I would do it.  
"I'll go with you."  
I turned, locking eyes with Shika. His expression made it clear that there was no disputing that point.  
"Can you hold that many people with shadow possession at once?" I asked him.  
"After I take the soldier pill, yeah."  
I paused for a second and then nodded. He was the one to deal with them in the show, afterall. "Alright. Let's go, we'll radio in when we've finished them off." I handed Pakkun to Ino. "Keep us posted, okay?"  
"We will," she promised. She bit her lip, looking between us. "Be careful, alright?"  
"'Course."  
I gave Naruto's arm a squeeze and then Shika and I broke off, circling back a short distance.  
"We need to make a false trail," he said, sounding more like he was just thinking aloud rather than actually talking to me. "Not too obvious, given they're mostly chunin. Just enough to keep them from looking the other way."  
We veered to the left of where the others were, letting them get close before starting the fake trail. They were expecting genin, so Shika let the sound of himself landing on the trees echo more than usual, broke a few extra branches on the way, and I left the odd chakra mark or two like fresh genin often did when they were still getting used to tree hopping. This way it only looked like one of us was here instead of two.  
"Plan?" I inquired, keeping my voice low.  
"Working on it," he answered.  
"Not to rush you along, but we don't have much time."  
He let out a frustrated breath. "Kas."  
"Well we don't."  
"You're distracting me."  
I stopped talking, letting him think. Tensions were high and the last thing I wanted to do was push too hard right now. I stretched out my senses, checking up on the rest of the group while we ran. I'd been steadily increasing my range since I started working on it, to the point that now I could reach a little over a kilometer in range. The further out, though, the harder it was for me to really get a good idea of what I was looking at, I could just tell that there was something there. Near the edge of my senses was where I felt the others. It took me a second to discern that there were still four signatures - they hadn't met up with anybody else yet.  
"How many people can you take out with one of your poison tags?"  
"The ones I've got should kill all nine," I said. "It depends on physical characteristics but most people will only need two to four full breaths for a lethal dosage."  
He rubbed his face. "If we can lure them out into the open, I can hold all of them there. If you throw down a tag at their feet it'll force them to take the initial dosage, but the backlash will probably force me to drop the jutsu," he said. "What happens if they don't take a full dosage?"  
"Typically? It'll inhibit their movements," I replied. "Enough that I should be able to clean up any of them that don't get a lethal amount in their system if I need to."  
"Can you use your bloodlimit to drop it on them? If they don't suspect it coming the surprise of it might be enough to keep them from resisting it."  
"Yeah," I said.  
"Alright. We'll lure them out somewhere in the open. You'll position by where they're going to enter the open from, keeping out of sight. When they're in position I'll snag them with my shadow and hold them there, moving out so that they see me and focus on what I'm doing. While I have them distracted you can drop the tag on them."  
"It's not instant, you know," I warned. "There'll be about thirty seconds where we'll be dealing with them before it'll fully incapacitate them."  
He eyed the pocket he knew I kept the seals in, bothered by something. "How big is the radius?"  
"30 feet, give or take a few feet."  
He muttered a curse. "We'll be hit by it."  
"I have antidotes," I said. "I'll call it before I drop it. If you release your jutsu and run for cover just before it goes off, you might be able to get far enough away that you just get a minor dosage."  
"What about you?"  
"I've got my mask and some level of immunity to this stuff." I tugged at the mask. "I'll be fine."  
"It feels too risky," he complained, raking a hand through his hair.  
"Do you have anything else?" I countered. "'Cause I don't."  
"Clearly not, Kas."  
"Then it'll have to do, Shika."  
We found a suitable clearing not far off. It wasn't familiar, different from the one that Shika had used in the show - I was glad I chose had come now, because I wasn't sure whether or not Asuma would have still come to save his ass if I had let him go on his own.  
The sun was starting to hang lower in the sky, casting a heavy shadow on the side where they Oto and Suna nin would be entering from, something that would give Shika lots to work with. We'd taken longer than I would have liked to get here but none of the others had reported any skirmishes yet so my nerves hadn't gone too far off the deep end.  
Both of us popped our soldier pills and moved into position. I hunkered down near the entrance of it, perched in a tree and using a minor genjutsu to mask my presence. Shika went to the other end and hid behind the trunk of a tree, a much more obvious hiding spot, not bothering to try and cover his chakra.  
I opened up my senses, watching as eight of them went straight through into it and the ninth hung back, circling closer to where Shika was sitting. Just as I knew he would.  
I raised a hand to activate the headset. "Eight entering the clearing, ninth heading near to you. I'll deal with him," I whispered.  
He gave a subtle nod of his head, not wanting to say anything and give it away.  
I lightly moved through the trees to where the other one was. He was one of the chunin, also using a light genjutsu that did nothing to hide his signature from me. I didn't bother using my bloodlimit, instead just grabbing a kunai from my pouch and hefting it in my left hand, crouching on a branch above him.  
Shika's chakra flared as his shadow shot forward to catch the other eight shinobi in his jutsu. I waited for half a second before dropping from my branch, landing on the guy's shoulders and jabbing him with my kunai, sinking the blade far enough into his neck that the hilt was pushing up against his skin. My hand snaked around his mouth to keep him from making a sound that would catch the attention of his comrades.  
I only got off of him once I no longer felt the the air from him breathing pushing up against my palm.  
Nine.  
My hands moved through the seals for my bloodlimit. "Flawless Stealth. He's down," I informed him, pressing down the button so that my voice would continue into his earpiece without me having to hold it. The eight of them were shifting against the hold and the tightness in Shika's face made it clear his hold on them was starting to strain. "Preparing to deploy the tag." I jumped forward, launching myself in the air and drawing my mask up. "Drop it!"  
He released the jutsu and sprinted back just as the tag fell onto the head of the shinobi standing in the middle of the grouping. He'd gathered them tightly enough that two fell from the initial blast, a third severely injured by it.  
Eleven.  
There were a few strangled cries of shock as the sharp stench of burning flesh coated the air, masking any kind of poisonous scent that they otherwise might have caught.  
My feet hit the ground and I dropped my bloodlimit, darting back into the safety of the trees and pulling out my tessen. The black smoke was billowing out through the entirety of the clearing, creeping towards the forested areas.  
There was a half-second pause before a voice called out, "Wind Release: Dragon's Breath!"  
A massive whoosh echoed through the air and the poison cloud was shoved away from all of the Oto nin, straight towards us.  
"Back!" I cried, scrambling to get out of the way of the black smoke.  
I felt Shika's chakra jolt in response and he retreated further into the forest.  
The reaction was fast, though I don't think it was fast enough to have saved all of them. There was a smattering of light coughs, but nothing like what you'd expect when somebody gets a face full of burning poison. Then I took note of the masks - those were definitely a problem.  
Over the radio, Ino's voice crackled through the speaker. "Target in sight, Choji and I are engaging."  
Fuck.  
"Acknowledged." I ran my hands through the seals, murmuring, "Flawless Stealth."  
We needed to hurry up.  
Three of them were coming towards me, likely following the sound of my shout, while the others were running to where they'd seen Shika retreat to. And, if things weren't going badly enough, I could feel the telltale stinging in my chest of the poison having entered my lungs.  
Why can't things ever just go right?  
They may have heard my voice but there was no chance they could see me. I had to be fast, if I was going to clean these guys up quickly enough to go help Shika. I went straight for the genin, slicing through his throat with my tessen in an x-shape. His head dropped off his shoulders, rolling into the feet of his comrades.  
Twelve.  
I flicked my bloodlimit off, letting them see me and pulling their attention. One started moving his hands through seals and I turned my bloodlimit back on, shifting out of the way. He left his hands in place, waiting for me to show myself before finishing the jutsu. Instead, I darted forward, slicing his hands off at the wrists. He let out a choked scream and I dropped my bloodlimit, jamming my elbow into his windpipe.  
Thirteen.  
His comrade took advantage of my reappearance, slamming a foot into my chest and flinging me back against a tree, the air forced out of my lungs in a sudden gust. Ouch.  
He tossed a couple kunai in the air and clapped his hands together, sending them soaring towards my head. I threw myself forward to avoid them, rolling forward out of the way and pointedly ignoring the sharp pain in my ribs, the momentum from the movement aiding me as I pushed my hands against the ground, propelling myself to my feet.  
He let loose a flurry of taijutsu that I easily avoided, using my tessen to deflect his blows, though he didn't give me enough time to actually get any of my own hits in. I'd wait him out.  
I opened my senses. Shika's signature wasn't showing any signs of injury, though he was already running low on chakra again. It seemed like he was just stringing them through the trees, buying himself time - then one of the signatures following him dropped like a rock.  
The guy's fist caught me in the face and I staggered back. I was getting distracted. He charged forward and I jumped back a ways, avoiding the roundhouse kick that would have been a painful blow to the head. I held my distance, watching him move.  
He came at me again, but his movements were sluggish, easy to predict.  
The poison was starting to kick in.  
Rather than avoid it I caught the blow on my forearm and shifted forward, pouring chakra into my fist as it connected with the underside of his jaw. The bone was crushed beneath the force and he reeled back. I followed up with a sharp snap of my hips, landing a chakra-fueled kick on his sternum, flattening him against the tree a few feet away. I'd taken him off guard by the sudden burst of action.  
I threw my tessen through the air, feeling like I'd just tossed the world's deadliest frisbee.  
He let his weight sag against the trunk and avoided it, but before he could move away I was on him, driving my knee into his throat.  
Fourteen.  
With a sharp tug I dislodged my tessen from the bark and wiped it across the guy's shirt, having to clear them of blood for the second time that day.  
Alright. Now to go provide some backup.  
I dumped chakra into my legs, sprinting through the trees to where Shika's signature was spiking with activity. I moved past one body that had been decapitated by ninja wire - I didn't even know he had any of that with him. There was drops of blood splattered on the ground that I really, really hoped weren't Shika's.  
Halfway to where he was, there was another body - or rather, parts of a body. It looked like Shika had put up a net of ninja wire and the guy ran straight into it. Or Shika walked him into it using shadow possession. Not that it mattered.  
When I caught up to where he was, he looked like he'd had about as much fun as I had. He had a wound across his cheek that looked like it had probably been made by a kunai and another on his arm that looked the same, just a bit larger. There was a worrying amount of blood blossoming from his shoulders that I'd have to look at before we left, though.  
There was still one shinobi in front of him, a kunai brandished in his hand, poised in front of him, still as a statue. I looked down and noted the blotch of darkness connecting the two of them. Shika had him caught in a shadow possession, and just as I was approaching he forced the guy to stab the kunai through his own heart, ending that fight there.  
I let out a wheezing breath, my shoulders sagging some. We'd done it.  
"You alright?" I asked.  
"Mostly." Shika let the bodies drop, rubbing a hand over his face with a tired noise. He looked almost shell shocked, like it hadn't really sunk in yet that he'd just killed three people. His voice was distinctly blank, his eyes just a little too wide, shoulders slumped more than usual. "I don't think that could have gone anymore wrong than it did."  
"Probably not," I said shakily, my voice still muffled by the mask I'd never gotten the chance to remove. I turned to him, my hand moving into the back of my pouch and pulling out the antidote and a needle to administer it with. "Arm."  
He blinked at me. "I didn't - "  
"Just give me your fucking arm."  
No way in hell was he going to argue with that. I flipped the cap off, taking a bit extra than he probably needed to be on the safe side. My hands were shaking as I poked the needle through his skin, pushing the antidote in and lightly slapping at the area I'd injected to help circulate the blood more quickly. I repeated the process to myself, cringing and turning my head away after I knew I'd gotten the needle to the right spot. Ugh.  
While I did all that, Shika was talking to Ino and Cho, getting an update on their fight. The second Sasuke saw them he bypassed Temari, leaving the other two to deal with her. They'd been able to take Temari without our help, given the fact that she was essentially exhausted of chakra from the moment they engaged with her. During that conversation, Naruto and Kiba cut in to tell us that they'd started fighting Kankuro, with Sasuke pulling the same stunt. After they secured Temari so that she couldn't just get up and chase after them again, Ino and Cho would be heading their way to help finish off that fight.  
Then we'd all be headed towards Sasuke.  
I went to heal the wound on Shika's shoulder and he moved my hand away. "We should get moving."  
"Wait, it'll only take a minute."  
"You were the one saying that we needed to hurry, it's fine."  
"There's no point in running around with injuries," I said. My hands were still shaking and I just focused on keeping my voice from doing the same. "Please."  
My eyes were starting to droop at this point. I wasn't terribly low on chakra yet, thankfully, but I still potentially had to help with the fight against Kankuro and then heal whatever damage had been done to the boys from fighting Gaara. By that point, I'd be feeling the effects of coming down from a soldier pill, too. The last time I'd done it I'd had a fall back from Keiko, but I didn't have one of those with me this time.  
I just… I had to do something right.  
After everything had gone so terribly wrong I needed to do something.  
Mutely, he lay back against the tree trunk. My hand glowed green and I closed up the gash on his shoulder first. The kunai didn't go terribly deep, but it probably didn't exactly feel nice to have that kind of wound just out on the open. The cuts on his arm and face were easy, though I pointedly kept my eyes down, not in the mood to have him poking through my emotions.  
I finally cleaned up the wounds from earlier, patching up my arm and face. Neither were going to scar, thankfully - the last thing I needed was another mark on my face.  
When I finished that we moved back into the clearing. I double checked to make sure that the last Oto nin who had gotten injured in the blast did in fact die while we had been busy with the others. In the end, he was the only one of them to actually die from the poison itself.  
Fifteen.  
"Can you feel them anywhere?" Shika asked as we ran back through the forest.  
"Vaguely," I said. Ino and Cho's signatures were on the very edge of my senses, along with… Temari? My eyebrows knit together and I pressed my hand up to my ear. "Ino, Cho, report."  
There was a pause before Ino's voice replied, "We're heading towards where Naruto and Kiba are fighting Kankuro. We brought Temari with us, just to be safe."  
"Got it, thanks." Well, it was probably better than just leaving her out in the middle of the forest to be found later on by patrols. "Kiba, Naruto, can you report?"  
"Negative," Kiba grunted into the headset. The sounds of combat echoed in the background, accompanied by the incessant yelling of at least a hundred Naruto's. Hopefully that fight wasn't going too terribly. Given how different this was from the show, I had no point of reference as for how things were going to pan out, a rather odd feeling. It was the first time I had deviated so strongly from the timeline I knew that I was actually in the dark.  
"Ino, ask Pakkun how far you guys are from their location?"  
She relayed the question. "He said a minute and a half, at most," Ino informed me.  
Good. "We're about a kilometer off of you guys, we'll meet up and regroup at Kiba and Naruto's location." That was if we went slow. I turned to Shika, checking his chakra reserves. Even after a soldier pill he'd expended a large amount of his chakra to hold the eight of them there, and I assumed he used some of it to help speed his reflexes while he was fighting. "You good to pick up the pace?"  
"Should be," he said.  
I set us at a pretty fast pace to try and make up for the time I'd used up healing us. We slowed down some once we'd caught up to Ino and Cho who were moving a bit sluggishly with the extra weight of Temari to account for. Pakkun hopped back into my arms when we got close, sniffing me curiously and turning his wrinkled face away from me.  
"You smell awful," he groused.  
I didn't reply, instead just taking stock of our little ragtag team.  
Ino had about half her reserves left for chakra. She was bleeding from a few minor wounds along her arms and legs, probably from Temari's wind releases, but wasn't moving in a way that led me to believe she was otherwise uninjured. Cho was about the same. He had a bit more of his chakra left, though he was in physically worse condition, potentially having taken a couple of wind releases for Ino. He'd need a bit of attention when we got the chance.  
With a short nod I opened my senses, feeling around for the other two. I could feel Naruto and Kiba's chakra signatures about two hundred metres off, in the midst of a fight they were winning. There was something about Kiba's signature though that set me on edge. It was dulled, still spiking as signatures did in combat, but he was either badly injured or poisoned.  
That was very, very bad.  
"We need to move, Kiba's in trouble. I'm going to jump ahead, take Pakkun and follow, be prepared to intervene on Shika's mark," I said and handed Pakkun off to Shika.  
"Got it."  
"I'm heading to your location, Naruto and Kiba. Kiba I'm pulling you from the fight when I get there, ETA fifteen seconds." Without having to hold my speed to keep pace with the others, I would be able to get there in at least half the time.  
"Affirmative," Naruto said.  
"I'm fine!" Kiba panted, his voice sounding like he was the exact opposite.  
I had about two seconds to take in what was going on when I got there. Kiba was hanging back, in clear pain, though Akamaru had transformed into a version of Kiba and was dancing around the puppeteer. Kankuro had his back to me, fully occupied with Naruto and Kiba to even consider glancing back towards me. "Incoming, on your 40 Naruto!"  
I could see the web of chakra strings stretching from Kankuro's fingers, and had enough time to be duly impressed by his chakra control before I slammed into the lower part of his back like a freight train. With the speed I'd been going he never stood a chance. I tumbled to the ground, managing to tuck my shoulder in and partially stick the landing. Naruto pounced on the opening, pounding into Kankuro with a mass of clones.  
I forced myself to my feet, moving over to where Kiba was.  
"Kasumi, I can still fight," he bit out. "We need to help him!"  
"Ino, Shika, and Cho are going to be here in twenty seconds, max," I said. "Naruto can handle himself until then, you need medical attention."  
He was frighteningly pale. I couldn't see any injuries, a fact that lent itself to my other thought that he had been poisoned. He went to move towards where Naruto was and stumbled. I managed to catch him before he fell, throwing one of his arms over my shoulder and forcibly leading him to a safer spot. Akamaru transformed back into his normal form, following at my heels.  
I helped him sit and started checking him over. His eyes were slightly glazed over, reacting slowly to my hand in front of them. I lifted the back of my hand and held it against his forehead - no fever, at least. I pushed down on his chin with my thumb, taking a look at his tongue. It was bright red and visibly inflamed. I went to press on his stomach when jerked forward, vomiting blood all over the ground.  
"Oh fuck," I muttered.  
He went from frustrated to terrified in record time. At his side Akamaru whimpered, nudging his head against Kiba's arm. "Kami," he whispered.  
You didn't have to work with poisons often to know that vomiting blood is a very bad sign.  
"Kiba, I need you to stay calm. If you panic it'll increase your heartrate, spreading the poison faster," I said, forcing my voice to stay steady even as my own heart started hammering in my chest.  
This was bad.  
I bit my thumb, and for the first time ever summoned both Toshiko and Keiko at once.  
They looked to each other, up at me, and then to Kiba who was wiping blood off his chin.  
The two of them immediately jumped on him, each biting into his arm to get a blood sample to identify the problem. Akamaru growled at them, ready to protect his partner, but I plucked him up before he could actually get in their way, petting his head softly. Kiba went to move away but I placed my other hand on his arm.  
"What the - "  
"They're my summons, they're going to be who save your life," I told him.  
Behind us I felt Ino, Shika, and Cho burst into the area, finishing off whatever tiny bit of fight Kankuro had left in him.  
Stop. Focus.  
Toshiko looked up at me. "I am getting a strong taste of Daphne and Foxglove, mistress."  
"I thought both of those have to be ingested to be fatal," I said, confused.  
"There was a gas he sent out at us," Kiba said numbly. He looked at me with wide eyes. "I… I didn't think I got any of it."  
I let my eyes fall closed and took a deep breath.  
"It barely takes any," I muttered and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Was Akamaru close to the gas when he used it against you?"  
"No… he was on the other side of the clearing," Kiba said, nodding more to himself than me, I think.  
Thank God. I couldn't deal with having to try and heal both of them at once. "Keiko?"  
"I'm also getting hints of Ligustrum," she informed me. "I suggest both an oral and injected antidote, mistress."  
"Can you prepare those for me, Keiko?" I asked.  
She gave a nod and disappeared.  
Asking my summons to make the antidote for me wasn't the kind of thing I did lightly. Mostly because they didn't have to. Summons were creatures who, at the end of the day, were not required to do anything for me. They chose to help me. If they didn't like who I was when they allowed me to sign their contract then they could have easily broken the contract. Or, if at any point they no longer deem me worthy of their services, they can simply stop answering when I call for them.  
"Hey, what's wrong with him?" Naruto asked, running up behind us. Ino, Shika, and Cho followed slightly further behind.  
"Poison," I said. "We're working on it."  
"Is… is it bad?" he asked, his face tight with concern.  
"Honestly? Yeah," I answered softly. The sudden tension in the air had me chewing on my lip - if I kept this up it was going to start bleeding soon. "Keiko and Toshiko are working on it, though."  
"Can't one of us just take him back to Konoha?" Ino asked. "If he's injured he shouldn't stay out here!"  
"Aside from the fact that the village is currently under lockdown and covered with enemies," I said. "He wouldn't make it back there."  
It was better to be honest. Kiba inhaled sharply, paling further if that were even possible.  
"Is there anything we can do?" Cho asked eagerly.  
I shook my head, resisting the urge to rub at my face. "Not really. Keiko is coming up with an antidote that should mostly counteract it… if that doesn't work, I'll have to manually remove the poison," I said, my mouth turning down in distaste at the thought. I'd read multiple theories on how to extract poison manually, enough that I had a very strong idea of what I would do. I had no idea how well I'd do it, though - if it was down to life or death for Kiba, it wouldn't really matter because I'd give it a shot anyways.  
I shoved away the guilt clogging my throat. If he died, it would be entirely on my hands.  
Not only had I chosen to bring him along but I'd wasted time healing Shika and I. That was time that could have been getting here sooner, potentially stopping Kiba from ever getting poisoned in the first place. And if it didn't, it would have given us more time to work with. In trying to do something right, I'd only messed something else up.  
I'd have time to throw myself a pity party later, though, when lives weren't on the line.  
From the edge of my senses I felt a sudden explosion of dark chakra that sent shivers down my spine. Shukaku. Gaara was starting his transformation.  
"What is it?" Shika asked.  
"Gaara, I can feel him doing something with Shukaku's chakra," I said. "Sasuke's about to be in a deep pile of shit."  
Naruto bristled. "We can't just stand here!"  
"You're right, Sasuke's about to need some serious help," I said to them. "Ino, Shika, and Cho, I want you three to worry about getting Sasuke out of the fight. If he's injured, pull him out of there and guard him. Naruto… if it comes down to it, engage Gaara. Just be careful, alright?"  
"I promise I'll watch out, Kasu," he said.  
Shika looked between Kiba and I. "Keep us updated."  
"I will, now go."  
The turned and ran, Pakkun barking directions at them.  
Another minute passed before Keiko popped back up beside me, two vials sitting in front of her. I grabbed the first one, handing it to Kiba. "Drink all of it. It'll taste disgusting, but if you spit out even a few drops it might not take full effect."  
He nabbed it from me and chugged it, clapping a hand over his mouth to keep from spitting it out, eyes bulging. Hey, I warned him. Once he got it all down I pulled the needle out from my pouch and filled it with the entire vial, trusting Keiko's dosage. I didn't have time to stop and think about whether or not it was right.  
I grabbed his wrist and pushed the sleeve of his jacket up, pushing the contents of it into his bloodstream. I clapped a hand against the skin to get the blood circulating around the area.  
Kiba gazed at me nervously. "What now?"  
"We wait," I said.  
He nodded, looking dazed, his eyes darting around, sweat coating his brow. "Yeah, yeah okay."  
I raised a hand to his forehead - he'd started running a fever. "Keiko, how long should the antidote take to kick in?"  
"No more than a minute, mistress."  
"Can you bring me a few buckets of water? I'd like to be prepared to remove the poison manually should I need to. The second that minute is up I want to get started."  
"Of course, mistress."  
Kiba was shaking. Whether it was because he was terrified or because the poison was attacking his nervous system I didn't know.  
I reached out, firmly holding his hands in mine. "Kiba." His gaze shot up to mine. "I know you're scared, I would be too. It's alright to be scared. But I am going to do everything in my power to keep you alive, got it?"  
"Got it," he murmured.  
"I'll warn you now, if I have to remove it manually, it's going to be painful."  
"I can handle it," he said.  
"I know."  
The rest of the minute ticked by. I was watched Kiba carefully the entire time, not taking my hand away from his forehead. Slowly, the heat faded from it. His colour started to come back and the sharp alertness started to return to his eyes. let out a startled laugh. Just to be sure, I tipped open his mouth, noting that the swelling in his tongue had gone down and it was now closer to being pink than red.  
"It… it's working," I breathed. "Thank Kami."  
Kiba's face broke out into a grin and he flew forward, pulling me into a tight hug, squashing Akamaru who was still sitting on my lap. "Thank you."  
I smiled, relief flooding through me. "Don't thank me, thank these two," I said, pointing at Keiko and Toshiko. "They did all the work."  
He turned to them and bowed his head in thanks. "I owe you my life."  
Keiko gave a short, happy bark. "Anything to help my mistress."  
Toshiko stood a bit taller and her bushy tail swished happily. "Yes, we are glad to have been of service."  
I gave them a small bow and they popped out of sight. I was going to give them a nice long break after this.  
I raised a hand to my ear. "Kiba's going to be alright, we'll be heading your way ASAP."  
"Acknowledged," Ino said. "We're twenty seconds from Sasuke's position."  
Good.  
Okay.  
"Can you walk?" I asked.  
"Should be able to, yeah," he said. Akamaru tucked himself in the front of Kiba's jacket, yipping excitedly. Kiba stood up and I moved his arm over my shoulders. His knees were a bit wobbly, probably from a combination of low chakra and the fact that Ligustrum is known to damage the nervous system. The antidote was still working on him but that was something an actual medic was going to have to deal with.  
We started moving, a bit slower than I'd like but I'd manage. Kiba seemed to be actively avoiding putting his weight on me, normally something I'd have called him on if he hadn't just almost died from being poisoned. Whatever.  
As we got closer I could feel out a bit more of what was happening. Gaara's chakra was raging, as was Naruto's. I couldn't tell how far he had transformed, but he had definitely done it at this point, and Naruto seemed to be at least tapping into Kurama's chakra.  
"Naruto's engaging Gaara," Shika said over the headsets, confirming what I already knew. "We're… not sure what's wrong with Sasuke. He seems to be conscious but he's not able to move."  
"Alright. Kiba and I are roughly two minutes off of your position," I said. I dropped my hand from the headset and turned to Kiba. "Anyway I can convince you to hop on my back so I can just run us there?"  
His face flushed almost as red as the markings on his cheeks. "Can you even do that?"  
Good question. My reserves were… well, not at a fantastic level right now. I had about a third of my chakra left. If I were to toss Kiba on my back and just book it to where the fight was happening I'd probably knock myself down to only having a quarter of my reserves.  
Fuck it.  
"Jump on," I said, pausing to give him a chance.  
"You've got to be joking."  
"You can get on yourself or I'll carry you bridal style."  
He jumped on himself.  
By the time we got there, Naruto had a mass of clones - 999 to be exact - surging against Gaara's Shukaku form. Sasuke was up, looking like he wanted to fight but seeming to realize that he just didn't have anything left in him to do it. Shika, Ino, and Cho were gathered near him, giving him some space without leaving him entirely on his own should Gaara come at him. Temari's unconscious body was sitting just behind them.  
Oh, we forgot to bring Kankuro.  
Oops.  
Getting up close was well… definitely going to be a test to my control over my senses.  
Gaara was at this point almost entirely gone, mentally at least, killing intent pouring off of him that didn't have any kind of specific target so much as simply wanting to end the life of anybody who stood in front of him. He was damn near fully transformed at this point, meaning that we'd really only stumbled upon the fight near the very end of it.  
Looking at it reminded me of watching Kakashi-sensei fight Zabuza - watching two people who were so far out of your league in terms of strength that you just knew not to get close.  
I touched down just behind their group, letting Kiba climb off my back and walk over to them on his own. I beelined for Sasuke, trying my hardest to ignore the buzzing in the back of my head at the sheer amount of chakra in action off to the side.  
"Hey," I said, crouching beside him.  
"You look awful," he said, blunt as ever.  
"Gee, thanks," I muttered. He didn't seem to have any physical injuries, it was just his chakra, so low that I was shocked he had even managed to stay conscious. "Anything I can help with?"  
His mouth turned down in a scowl and he jerked his chin to look away from me. "No," he said bitterly.  
I blinked at him, trying to figure out what was going on in his head. There was anger in his voice, frustration, but it didn't sound like it was aimed at me, necessarily. I watched his posture. Tense shoulders, eyes narrowed, watching Naruto pound into Gaara with clones…  
Oh.  
Oh.  
Sasuke wasn't mad at me - he was mad at himself.  
Even after training himself stupid for the last month he wasn't strong enough. He'd used up all his chakra and given how the others had found him, he'd had to use the curse seal. He'd literally thrown everything he had at Gaara and hadn't been able to do a thing against him. He was frustrated that he wasn't strong enough to take Gaara and that he was now stuck watching helplessly as Naruto fought against him, risking his life to keep the rest of us safe.  
Right here, right now, felt like an opportunity.  
I'd never messed with how things were going to go. I let everything fall into place because it always felt like I didn't have any other option. I always felt like, if I made a change, it was just going to blow back in my face, only making things worse rather than make it any better. Hell, that was pretty much how this entire mission had gone. Even after everything that got fucked up and nearly went wrong… we were all alive. As long as Naruto pulled out a win against Gaara, we were all going to walk away.  
I didn't want to play God. Not in this world, not with the people I cared about at risk.  
But did it could as playing God if all I did was try and steer him in the right direction?  
During the second exam, things had seemed more stable between the Sasuke and Naruto, though that just meant they didn't spend every minute pushing each other's buttons. I had hoped to build on that more and try to lighten things between them but Kakashi-sensei didn't waste any time in sweeping Sasuke off to train with him.  
Obviously one conversation couldn't completely nip that in the bud.  
It would take time. Sasuke had never given me a chance to really talk to him before. Little things here and there, but never like this. I'd resigned myself to the fact that helping Sasuke was beyond my reach because you couldn't save somebody who didn't want to be saved. I'd given up on him. Yet, maybe it didn't have to be that way. Here he was, giving me a chance. The closest thing I'd gotten to this was during the second exam, but I'd been too out of it to even try and capitalize on it.  
Maybe I could keep trying, keep pushing.  
If I couldn't stop Sasuke from walking the dark path, I could at least do my best to lighten it for him as he took it.  
"Don't do that to yourself," I finally murmured, keeping my gaze on his face.  
"Do what?" he replied, not taking his gaze off the fight.  
Probably the right thing to do.  
Actually, definitely the right thing to do.  
"Don't beat yourself up over this," I answered.  
He let out a harsh breath. "Why not? I wasn't strong enough to do anything. I was entirely useless."  
"So are all of us," I retorted.  
"Not Naruto," he threw back.  
I pondered on that. Man, I was walking on some mighty thin ice right here. "What makes Naruto strong isn't the kind of training he does - not that he doesn't train just as hard as the rest of us," I said, choosing my words ever so carefully. "What makes Naruto strong is the fact that he has so many people he wants to protect."  
"Don't - "  
"Wait," I said softly. Much to my surprise he actually did, finally turning to look at me. "Just listen. Of course, Naruto has absurd levels of chakra and he's grown strong over the last month from the training he's been going through. He's grown. We all have. But that growth would be useless if he didn't have something else to drive him forward. Having so many close friends and people he cares about is what makes him so powerful - he has us to anchor him and keep him going that extra mile further."  
His expression was guarded, to the point where I had no idea he'd even heard me until he nodded.  
Rome wasn't build in a day, and Sasuke Uchiha wasn't going to change his view of us in a single conversation.  
Baby steps.  
Shika moved over to where we were, mildly annoyed. "I hate to break up this heartfelt conversation, but if you didn't notice, there's a massive battle happening right in front of us."  
I'd very pointedly been focusing on shutting off my senses and focusing on everything but the fight, not wanting to risk a reaction like I'd had earlier.  
Now though I finally took a good look at what was happening. Immediately a wave of nausea tore through my stomach and I took a deep breath, forcing myself to work through it. Naruto had gotten on top of Gamabunta at this point. Said toad had taken off Shukaku's arm and was struggling to hold the beast in check. It was hard to discern Gaara's signature from inside the mass, but the low activity in what I could tell was his told me that he'd given up full control.  
Having enough information I squeezed my eyes shut, rubbing my hands against my temples. "Gaara's not even awake - he gave Shukaku full control. Naruto's there with Gamabunta but they'll need to figure something out real quick or it might get messy… at least, messier than it already is."  
"So what do we do?" Cho asked, his hands twitching, probably wishing he had something to eat away the nerves. "I mean… I could try and use my Multisize Technique."  
I just shook my head. "It won't work."  
"We can't just sit here!" Kiba burst out.  
"That's exactly what we're going to do," I said. Before any of them could say anything I held up a hand. "If any of us get involved, we'll just get ourselves killed, Naruto killed, or both. It's one thing to fight a group of chunin as genin, it's a whole other fucking reality to try and fight a jinchuuriki in their tailed beast form as genin."  
"We… we really have to just sit here and watch?" Ino asked.  
"I'm not happy about it either," I said.  
"Really?" Kiba grumbled. "Because you're sure doing a lot of nothing for somebody who's not happy with how things are going,"  
I let out a sharp, frustrated sound. "Do you think I fucking like sitting on my ass watching somebody who's pretty much my brother fight?"  
"Kas," Shika said, clearly trying to halt the conversation before it got nasty.  
"When you pick fights you can't handle, Kiba, you put everybody at risk," I said, ignoring him. "If we try and help Naruto we're just going to get in the way. We can't stand up to that. We'd put ourselves in danger and Naruto would be the one to bail us out - he'd have to focus on protecting us while fighting Gaara, we can't put him in that position."  
"We're just leaving him to fight one his own."  
"We're trusting him to be strong enough to fight this on his own," I corrected.  
"I don't like it," he muttered.  
"You don't have to."  
The conversation was cut short when I felt a spike in chakra. My gaze shot up, watching as Naruto and Gamabunta together took the form of Kurama.  
Everything in me screamed.  
Logic in me knew it wasn't really Kurama. Naruto was using some of the chakra, as he had been for the last couple of minutes, but it sent a primal wave of holyfuckingshitjustrun like I hadn't felt since that night thirteen years ago.  
"Holy fuck," Kiba whispered. "What is that?"  
"Kas… that's not…"  
I swallowed hard, forcing myself to calm down. It's not him. It's not the real thing. The chakra's there, but nowhere near enough and nowhere near as powerful. "No, no it's not. It's Naruto and Gamabunta, it just looks like it."  
"Gamabunta?"  
"The toad," I said absently, focusing more on slowing my heart rate and keeping my mind from wandering too dangerously. "They… to try and fight Shukaku, they took the form of the Nine Tails."  
I felt myself flashing back, thirteen years ago, once again in the body of a baby, bundled up in my crib as the vicious chakra washed over my body, clogging my -  
"Kas," Shika said, forceful enough to drag me back. "What's going on?"  
Right, focus. Don't go back there now.  
I let my grip on my senses loosen, focusing again on what was going on.  
I was going to have a headache for weeks from all this shit.  
"Naruto… he's going for Gaara," I murmured. It was muddy, hard to tell what exactly was happening amidst the chaos. It helped that I already had a good idea of what should be happening but it was still a struggle to make out anything useful. "I think he's… yeah, he's punching him in the face."  
"What?" Ino yelped.  
I felt myself sway a little, my head pounding like somebody had smashed a sledgehammer against my forehead. "Sorry, I can't keep looking…" I muttered. "If I keep going I'm going to pass out, puke, or both."  
"That bad?"  
"Try looking directly into the sun for half an hour. That's what it feels like."  
We waited for a tense minute as the two duked it out. I had my hands clenched at my sides, forcing myself to just focus on keeping my senses in check at this point. It was odd that today was the first time I'd really gotten any kind of oversensitivity out of them. Something I needed to work on, frankly. I could only assume it was due to the sheer amount of chakra that had been used around me over the course of the last few hours, like standing around outside for too long.  
Then, the sand started to crumble away, piece by piece until the image of Shukaku no longer loomed above the treetops. Gamabunta disappeared with it, removing the form of Kurama along with him. Just like that it was over.  
"Wait, where'd all of it go?" Cho asked. "Everything's just… gone."  
I let my senses go again and felt around, locating Naruto and Gaara. Only just, though, given that both boys seemed to have essentially no chakra left in their pathways.  
I sprinted towards them, using what little chakra I had left to speed up the movements. I didn't pause to see if the others followed behind me.  
"... that loneliness, I know, it's unbearable," he was saying, slowly dragging himself across the ground. His body was battered and bruised, blood leaking from various points of his skin, an almost impossible to sense amount of chakra fueling his body, but he was alive. "I've been there. People who love me, who care about me… they pulled me out of it. They showed me that there's more to life than anger and hatred. They believed in me to keep them safe, and that's what I was able to do."  
Sasuke was right behind me and from the flicker of emotion on his face, he heard about as much as I did.  
Plant the seed, watch to see if the tree grows.  
"Why… why would you fight me?" Gaara asked, eyes wide like he genuinely just wanted to understand. He sounded like a confused little boy. "Why put yourself at risk for them like this?"  
"They're my friends. They saved me from becoming something… something horrible," Naruto said, hacking a cough. There were tears streaming from his eyes. "They showed me love. They're what keep me going and that's why I will protect them, no matter what. I won't let anybody ever touch them. That's why… that's why I was willing to do what it took, even if that meant killing you to keep you from hurting them."  
They're my friends.  
They saved me.  
I fell to my knees beside him, gently bringing Naruto's head onto my lap. "Hey," I said, running a hand through his hair, visually assessing the damage. "How're you feeling?"  
"Ah, you know me Kasu," he managed. "Never been better."  
"You idiot," I murmured fondly, lighting my hand up with green and doing what I could. Thankfully most of the injuries were superficial, the only really worrying thing for me was the chakra, but I knew he'd bounce back. Naruto conked out as I was working, Sasuke sitting on the other side, watching me as I went.  
"How is he?" he asked quietly, face blank.  
"Low chakra, no major injuries otherwise," I said. "He'll be alright."  
Lowly, I heard Gaara muse, "Love… that's what gives him his strength."  
The other four came around a few minutes later. One of them had gone back to round up Kankuro who was still out cold. Temari, on the other hand, was awake and kicking, struggling against the ninja wire to the point where it'd started to cut into her skin. Cho gently set her down which set Kiba's eyes rolling. Even to people who had attacked the village, Cho couldn't help but show them some amount of kindness. Shika on the other hand dropped Kankuro on his ass.  
Then, they all looked to me.  
Temari followed their gaze as she realized that I was now the one who was going to decide what the hell happened to them.  
"So?" Kiba asked. "What now?"  
"Good question," I said.  
"We can't exactly take them back to the village," Shika drawled. "The entire thing is going to be on lockdown right now."  
"He's right," Ino said. "Besides, with everything that's happened during the invasion, prisoners aren't going to be the priority."  
That was debatable. The council was going to want to find out what the hell happened and fast. Prisoners were information and information was what would give the village a better idea of how to approach things afterwards - which mistakes not to repeat, which countries to reconsider relations with.  
Regardless, I didn't want that.  
"Please," Temari pleaded, eyes locked on mine. "Just let us go."  
"Pfft, after all of that, you don't really think - " Kiba looked over at me, reading my expression. "Oh, no. You can't be serious."  
I shrugged. "We have no reason to bring them back. It wasn't part of the mission."  
"After all of that, though?"  
"Think about it: Gaara's out of chakra, for now. The village won't have the kind of power to handle a Jinchuuriki for a prisoner," I answered. "It's just not a valid option for us."  
"But still," Kiba pressed. I didn't really blame him for arguing over it. They'd damn near killed him, I wouldn't have been thrilled if I were in his position. That didn't mean I was going to cave to what he wanted.  
"We could kill them," I said bluntly, my mouth curling downwards in a frown. I was kind of curious how the others would react - I had no intentions of actually doing it. Ino and Cho both flinched. Sasuke and Shika didn't really react. Kiba's face flashed through too many emotions for me to pick out, though he seemed to settle on an odd combination of distaste and satisfaction - he didn't want them dead, he just didn't want them to get away scot-free. Given the amount of lives I'd taken today, they probably weren't be surprised that I was the one to offer up the solution. "Should, probably."  
"No," Temari cried, squirming forward. "Please. We were just following orders."  
"Orders," Shika echoed, his voice clearly unimpressed, eyebrow going up. "That's the excuse you're going to give us."  
"The invasion was never our idea, it wasn't what we wanted," she stressed. She didn't take her attention off me for a second. "We had no choice."  
That was probably true. No matter what village you were from, a shinobi followed orders to the end, whether or not they agreed with them was often irrelevant. You either obeyed or you weren't of use to the village and disposed of. While I don't know to what degree they wanted to take part in the invasion, I was definitely willing to consider that they wouldn't have had any choice regardless, especially considering they were the children of the Kazekage and Gaara was their Jinchuuriki. Their roles were cemented in the invasion.  
By this point, Kankuro had started to come around. He recognized their situation fairly quickly, eyes jolting over to Temari, trying to get a read on how screwed they currently were.  
"Temari, what - "  
"Shut up!" she hissed. For the first time, she tore her gaze off of me, levelling a dark glare on her brother.  
He blinked at her, following her eyes when they went back to me. "So our fate is in the hands of a little kid?"  
If Temari wasn't bound I was fairly sure she would have beat her brother into the dirt. I mean, he figured they were probably dead already, not like there was anything left for him to lose by mouthing off.  
"Yeah, a little kid with a killer headache," I said, shaking my head, the exhaustion creeping into my bones. "Kami this has been a long day."  
Frankly, I didn't have it in me to take away their lives. I had no reason to. Naruto managed to touch Gaara today, starting the transformation from psychotic killer to admired Kazekage. Temari would go on to become a staple in the lives of Suna villagers, training the next generation of shinobi and acting as the diplomatic voice between Suna and Konoha - not to mention, there was a chance she was Shika's future wife. Kankuro was a stark asshole, but he would grow to care for his brother, protective in the way only siblings could pull off, one of the few people Gaara would be willing to confide in down the road.  
Potential.  
I'd snuffed out enough today.  
I looked down, realizing I'd never stopped running my fingers through Naruto's hair. I already knew what his answer would be. Really, I knew mine, too - I had the entire time.  
I levelled Temari with a cold glare and for the first time in my life, let a hint of killing intent pulse off my body, not quite the full thing considering I didn't actually want to kill them, but enough to make it very clear to her that I could. I wanted no chance of this coming back to bite me in the ass. She actually flinched, her gaze moving instinctively downwards.  
"You can take your brothers and go," I told her, my voice sounding odd even to myself. It was cold and harsh and dark and just so not like my own. "But I swear to Kami, if you make me regret this, it will be the last thing you ever do."  
She nodded hurriedly, muttering a grateful, "Yes, of course. We have no reason to stay here."  
I dropped the killing intent and her entire body eased.  
Kiba stepped forward and swiped at the ninja wire wrapped around her with his nails, then turned to do the same with Kankuro. The puppeteer nodded in my direction, the closest thing to 'thanks' I was going to get out of him, and hobbled over to pick Gaara up. Him and Temari took off into the forest, struggling to get into what would be considered a decent pace by shinobi standards. I traced their signatures for a couple of minutes just to be safe before my head fell back, staring up into the sky.  
It was such a gorgeous day to have been ruined by an invasion.  
"I think I'm going to sleep for a year when this is over," I finally said, breaking the silence.  
Everybody started shuffling around. Sasuke reached forward, lifting Naruto up and setting him over his back. I would have offered to help carry Naruto but I honestly didn't have it in me right then. Cho reached down and pulled me onto my feet, making sure I was steady on my feet before moving away.  
"We should go find the nearest patrol station," Shika said, looking at me. "Keep an eye out just in case there're other enemy shinobi in the area."  
Yeah, that would be my job, wouldn't it.  
I gave a nod. "I'll stay on guard," I said.  
We took a slow pace through the forest, walking rather than try and take the high ground. By this point, everything keeping me going had pretty much worn off and I was dragging my feet as we walked. Pakkun was still following us, hanging out near the back of the group with me, the snorting of his breathing the only noise as we went.  
I was exhausted. Kiba was probably still not feeling 100%. Ino seemed to be in the best shape out of all of us, only rocking a few scrapes and bruises. Cho had a bit of a nasty cut on the side of his arm that I'd missed earlier, along with some thin cuts across the rest of his body. Shika wasn't as low as I was on chakra but he was a close second. Sasuke was even worse off than either of us in regards to chakra, though Shika and I both had to contend with the aftereffects of using a soldier pill and completely draining your chakra again, something that was going to rear its ugly head fairly soon. I'd have summoned Keiko and gotten more of whatever it was she had given me during the second exam, but I'd already asked enough out of her for today. Naruto was, well… Naruto. If he didn't host Kurama he'd probably be dead right now, something that seemed like it was going to be a trend in his life.  
But, at the end of the day, we were all alive. Wonderfully alive.  
A patrol ended up coming across our group before we found a outpost.  
It was a group of two chunin that either weren't trying to hide their location or were doing a pretty shitty job of it as they approached. They were heading to where we were, so I assumed they at least knew we were there.  
"Wait," I said. "Patrols, let them come to us."  
Just in case.  
The others stopped and waited.  
The two chunin dropped out of the trees a fair ways in front of us, exchanging a glance. I put a bit of chakra in my ears, listening to their hushed conversation more out of annoyance than anything else.  
"A group of genin?" the one on the left murmured. "What are they doing this far out?"  
The other shrugged. "Think its safe?"  
"We'll be cautious, though none of them look that threatening."  
"The breeze like a sigh, swirling the leaves among the sky. The wind as sharp as it may be cannot cut through the strength of the great Hashirama trees," I recited blandly, earning a startled look from everybody else.  
There were more identification codes than you could shake a stick at. You got introduced to them in the Academy, though it was more important to know them once you hit chunin just in case you were in a position like the patrols were right now. Beauty of having a wicked sharp memory meant I knew every single one of them that I had the clearing to use. That one in particular was what you were supposed to use in case of an attack on the village, the genin variant, and also identified us as having been a part of the defending force.  
Genin weren't really expected to know much more than the basic identification code, though, even if we had much more than that at our disposal.  
"That settles that, then," one of them said. "I'm Hiroaki and that's Takeo."  
"What are you guys even doing out here?" Takeo asked. "Genin were supposed to be evacuated along with the civilians."  
"We were at the chunin exams. We were given a mission, which brought us all the way out here, and now it's done so we were heading back to the nearest outpost."  
What are mission was was probably not within their security clearance, and I wasn't in the mood to get into it.  
"Alright. We can't take you back into the village quite yet but we'll direct you somewhere safe where you can wait it out," Hiroaki said, scratching the back of his head. "Anybody hurt?"  
"Physically we've only got minor injuries, but a few of us are facing chakra exhaustion and two of us are going to be really feeling soldier pill backlash pretty quick," I replied.  
Takeo nodded and both of them moved towards us. "We can each take one of you to help speed this up some," he said, giving me a look that made it clear I was going to be getting carried the rest of the way.  
I'd started to feel the shivers coursing through my spine, my hands jittering at my sides. The fever was going to hit soon. Shika was doing a better job of hiding it, hands tucked in his pockets, but I noticed the shake in his arm.  
Hiroaki walked over to Sasuke. "Can you keep carrying him?"  
"Yes," Sasuke said firmly.  
"Then I'll take you," he said, turning to Shika. "Hop on, kid."  
The Nara boy was clearly not thrilled by the idea but he let himself be picked up, only muttering a single, "Troublesome."  
Takeo approached me, looking down and finally noticing that Pakkun was sitting at my feet, gazing up at him. "Ninken? Wait…" he took a closer look at the little uniform the pug had on him. "Isn't this one of Kakashi Hatake's ninken?"  
"I have a name," the dog said gruffly. "Pakkun."  
He looked down at the dog dubiously and said, "Alright."  
"Pakkun, thank you for your help," I cut in, bending down and giving him a pat on the head. "We can take it from here."  
The dog nudged my leg with his head. "I'll report back to Boss."  
He disappeared in the usual manner for summons and I stood up, cringing as the joints in my leg made a symphony of cracking noises. "I hope you don't mind getting your flak jacket messed up," I said. Everything about me, physically, was a complete disaster at this point.  
"I've been hoping to get a new one," he said with a grin. "Now hop on so we can get going."  
The outpost was only a couple of minutes away. They still didn't take the trees but they did pick up the pace considerably. I felt myself starting to nod off, slipping in and out of consciousness the entire way there. That was the dangerous thing about being off my feet - the second I wasn't having to focus on moving, my body started to shut down.  
I couldn't sleep yet, though.  
I still had one more thing I needed.  
Every time my eyes shut and I wrenched them back open, the scene seemed to change around me.  
I opened my eyes again, this time noticing that I was propped up against a tree. The two chunin had moved over to talk with another group of chunin, probably relaying what little information we had given them. If I had any chakra left to waste I'd have tried to listen in. Not that I really cared what they were talking about.  
Shika was beside me, Sasuke a little further off to my right. Naruto was splayed on the ground beside him. Ino, Cho, and Kiba were up with the chunin, probably giving them a bit more information on what was wrong with the four of us.  
"Go to sleep, Kas," Shika said, bumping his shoulder against mine.  
"Not yet," I murmured. "I just… I need one more thing."  
Mama and papa.  
I'd been so occupied with pretty much everything else that I hadn't had time to worry about whether or not they were okay - I was a fucking terrible daughter. With everything calmed down I now felt that stress weighing on my mind and more than a little guilt at having pretty much forgotten about it. Takeo had said that the civilians were evacuated, so I knew there was a pretty good chance they were perfectly fine.  
I just wanted to be sure.  
One of the two chunin who were stationed at the outpost came over, carrying a few blankets in his arms. He raised a hand to my forehead, holding it there for a few seconds before pulling away and giving me a smile. "Hey, the name's Ryuu. How you feelin'?"  
"Been better," I muttered.  
"Soldier pills?"  
"Uh huh."  
"We don't have anything that can really help with that, sorry," he said, handing me a couple of blankets. "You'll have to just bundle up and wait it out."  
"Thanks," I managed, a jaw-cracking yawn tearing itself from my body. "I'll live."  
He handed the other blanket to Shika who just put it in his lap with a nod. "Any information you can give us?"  
"Suna and Oto invaded, tried to sneak in through the forests - why they made that choice, we'll never know. As far as I know, the mess in the stadium's died down which was where the worst of the fighting occurred, though it sounds like you guys know that better than I do. We were able to snag a good amount of the forces before they could breach the main defenses around the village, though more than we'd like to admit snuck in with the clients for the exam. ANBU's busy cleaning up some of the more competent opponents in the streets, leaving the jonin and chunin to hunt out the rest of the stragglers."  
"How long until we're able to go back into the village?" Sasuke asked.  
"Since none of your injuries are fatal, you're stuck waiting it out just like the rest of us," he said. "If any of you are up to it, you can help sweep the forest, but other than that we could be here for the rest of the day."  
"The civilians were evacuated, right?" I asked.  
"Most of them, yeah," he answered, then seemed to catch my expression. "Family?"  
"Yeah," I said softly.  
He seemed to debate something before he stood again. "I know a couple of the people on guard duty for the evacuation site," he said. "If you tell me their names I can see if they'll look them up on the registrar."  
"Eiji and Tamaki Himura," I answered, my heart jumping into my throat.  
Ryuu nodded and walked back into the outpost, pulling out what looked like a radio and muttering a few words.  
My chin dropped to my chest and I was taken aback by the sudden tears I felt pushing at the corners of my eyes. The day had been an emotional rollercoaster. Man, I was going to have one hell of a time sleeping around the mess of nightmares that were waiting for me as soon as I really let myself drift off.  
Wordlessly, Shika pulled the blankets from my grasp and started wrapping them around my shoulders.  
They were alright.  
They had to be alright.  
For a couple of minutes Ryuu stood in silence, holding the radio up to his ear patiently. The other chunin, who introduced herself as Midori, was going around, double checking to make sure that all of us were actually alright. She came over and gave Shika and I both a quick check, muttering something about not letting genin have access to soldier pills, then left us with a small smile as she went back over to Ryuu.  
Kiba made his way over to where we were. Akamaru hopped up into my lap, curling up in the blankets, heat pouring off of him like a miniature radiator. He may not have known what was wrong, but he could tell that there was something amiss, keeping quiet and giving us a bit of space.  
"How come you look completely fine?" I asked, trying to distract myself from wondering what the hell was taking so long. "Both of you do. It's not even fair."  
Kiba scratched his head. "Akamaru and I have been using them in training for years."  
I turned an accusatory glare to Shika. He shrugged. "Beats me," he said.  
"Maybe we're feeling typical it normally and you're just handling it poorly," Kiba offered with a cheeky grin.  
"I would be that lucky, wouldn't I," I said wryly.  
I felt like a truck had run me over, reversed, and gone in for a second round. The pills took you from the brink of exhaustion, all the way up to full strength, then right back down to drop-dead tired.  
"If it makes you feel better, I think Hana had troubles with them too," he said.  
"Really?"  
"Yeah, she would have to knock out for a few days anytime her and mum started training with them."  
"So how'd she get around it?"  
Kiba gave a one-shouldered shrug, a light flush creeping up his neck. "Not sure, never remembered to ask."  
Sasuke let out a snort.  
"Good news," Ryuu said, coming back towards us. "The Himura's were brought to the Hokage monument in one of the first waves of the evacuation."  
The grip on my heart eased, a nodding slowly, my face stretching into a grin so stupidly wide Naruto would be proud. "Thank you."  
"Don't mention it," he said. "Now why don't you kids get some rest. We're going to be here for a while."  
He turned and walked away, heading back sit in the little outpost with Midori.  
Everything was alright  
Mama and papa were alright.  
We were all alive.  
It had all worked out in the end.  
I stopped fighting the exhaustion, letting it pull me away into sleep.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO  
.-.-.  
The weeks leading up to the third part of the exam were packed.  
I spent the first part of my days training with Ebisu. By the end of it I knew I'd made incredible progress with my taijutsu. Even with my weights on and loaded up I'd almost gotten to the point where I was landing consistent strikes against him during our spars and was actually able to beat him when I started using my bloodlimit. I'd never seen this kind of rapid improvement in myself before and it felt damn good.  
When that was done, if Tenten had time she'd drill me in every single kata she knew with the tessen. I was having an easier time with them the more we worked and I started to see what she meant in that they were better against large groups of enemies. Most of the kata were heavily reliant on large, arcing movements, swiping with both tessen in quick succession, using one to lead yourself into the strike for the other. Enough of the kata involved spinning motions that I was starting to get dizzy during practice. It almost felt like dancing more than fighting - except that I could slice limbs off with my dance, something Tenten assured me the tessen were capable of. Tenten and I moved into spars, as well, but she was going pretty easy on me, just giving me a chance to get a feel for how the weapons moved in combat.  
Any other spare time I had I found myself out in the workshop. Even if I wasn't working on my poisons specifically, it was nice to have somewhere peaceful and quiet to have some time to myself. Right now, though, I was working on something. I'd started working on getting something I could use to coat the saw-blade tips of my tessen.  
The thing with making poisons intended to go on weaponry is that you had to make sure it wouldn't just melt through or weaken the metal to a point where it was ineffective. With the tessen being gifts the last thing I wanted to do was destroy them. Most of my poisons now weren't perfect in this respect but I'd never cared much because kunai and senbon were pretty cheap to replace, all things considered.  
It was easier to deal with single plants for right now. I'd gotten Toshiko to bring me a few different plants she thought might work, for right now only working on something that would attack the nerves rather than kill, given that lethal poisons tended to be more acidic.  
Carefully I sliced open the side of the deep red berry, gently squeezing out as much of the juice as I could manage. It dripped into the bottom of the hot pot and sizzled. I moved my face back a bit, the lenses on my goggles fogging up from the amount of steam curling out of the pot. Not much of the toxic gas got through my mask but I still felt the burn in my chest.  
Gross.  
I eyeballed the amount that I'd gotten into the pot and poured a little bit of water, not wanting the poison to be terribly diluted. I stirred it some, watching the mixture fade from crimson red to a more muted shade.  
"Hey, Kas," Shika said, poking his head. He noticed the mask and took a step back.  
"You're fine," I assured him. "Minor neurotoxin."  
He nodded a little. "A giant frog just dropped Naruto off into the hospital… I don't know what happened but you might wanna go check that out."  
It was a stark reminder of just how soon everything was happening. Gamabunta dropping Naruto off from the chakra exhaustion meant I only had three more days to prepare for the shit storm that was going to ensue.  
I turned the stove off with a click and pulled off my gear. "Yeah, I don't even want to know what the hell happened there. Wanna come with?"  
"Such a long walk," he muttered.  
I gave him a severe look. "Shika."  
"Fine, fine. Troublesome woman."  
"I'm going to tell your mom that you called me that."  
"You wouldn't dare."  
.-.-.  
"Chakra exhaustion," I said, staring down at the medical reports. "Minor strain on his muscles from training like an idiot, but primarily chakra exhaustion."  
"How long is he going to be out for, do you think?" Shika asked.  
"A couple of days at least, the little idiot," I muttered.  
"Hey, that little idiot's training is going fantastically," a new voice said. "Thanks of course to having a fantastic sensei."  
I threw a look at Jiraiya who was perched on the edge of the window. Annoying or not, I didn't have the balls to glare at the Sannin. He'd either think it was hilarious or squash me like a gnat and I had no desire to find out which.  
"He's going to give you an earful if he's not awake in time for the final exam."  
"I'd love to see him try," Jiraiya said with a derisive snort. "Not that it matters. He'll be up in no time."  
I quirked an eyebrow. "You sound awfully sure of yourself."  
"I'm a legend - it comes with the territory."  
"He's got three days, I doubt he'll need longer than that," Shika said.  
I shrugged. "Maybe, but he's also got the largest chakra reserves out of anybody I've ever seen. Bigger pools, more time to recover."  
"Have a little faith. I wouldn't let himself get disqualified like that," Jiraiya said, leaning back out the window. "I don't feel like having that entire month go to waste over it."  
With that the toad sage hopped out the window, the faint sounds of giggling floating up through the window, off to go snoop in the bathhouse.  
"You really don't like him, huh?" Shika asked.  
"I just have a hard time believing that one of the most powerful shinobi to be produced by this village spends his days as a peeping tom."  
.-.-.  
"Kaka, come on," Naruto whined. "Just help me sneak out! The finals are tomorrow and I want to at least get one more day's worth of practice in before it."  
"Not a chance."  
"Why not?"  
"Because you need to rest!"  
"I've been asleep the last two days," he protested. "I can rest after the finals!"  
"You'll rest now and after the finals, then."  
"Kaka - "  
"Calling me that isn't getting you anywhere, neither is that face," I said pointedly. "Come on if you're going to try and convince me you need to step up your game."  
"No fair, nothing works on you."  
"I've known you too long," I said. "I've seen it all."  
Naruto pouted and I went back to reading the book I'd brought with me. Ebisu had said I was better off taking the day easy to save my strength, so I'd just spent it in the hospital, trying to keep Naruto from going stir-crazy.  
I'd started looking into some of the more advanced theories. Akane had let me swap out the books she'd lent me for stuff a bit more advanced with a very stern warning about not trying anything I learnt unless it was an emergency. The books she gave me addressed the intricacies of chakra coils, advanced biological-chakra interactions, and head injuries. The theory made my head spin some and was a lot more in depth than I imagined any science in this world ever would. I guess it made sense for Konoha to have this kind of knowledge, given the fact that one of our most famous shinobi was also the best medic in the elemental countries.  
"Yo," Shika drawled from the doorway, fruit basket in hand. "I was going to take these to Cho, but the nurses said that he can't eat any of it. Want some?"  
I waved a hand. "Nah."  
"Toss me an apple," Naruto said. "Thanks!"  
Shika bit into an apple himself. "Not like I had anywhere else to take it."  
"Hey, why don't we go and eat these in front of Cho," Naruto said with a wicked grin.  
"Oh man, that's cruel," Shika answered. "Let's go."  
"Kasu?"  
"I'll come with you, but I'm not taking - " I stopped mid-sentence, Gaara's approaching chakra hitting my senses like a brick wall. Dark and powerful, shifting towards the room that I knew Lee was in fast. We had to speed things up.  
"Hey, what - "  
"Follow me," I snapped.  
They looked at each other but didn't argue. I practically sprinted through the halls to where I could feel the chakra. Even before we opened the door I could feel the killing intent seeping under the door and coating the air as we breathed.  
Killing intent was something that varied depending on who was using it. Orochimaru's felt like it was strangling me, viciously cold, something that was so effortless for him to use and so debilitating to experience. Zabuza's had been like the mist he was so fond of, merciless and thick in the air, like you knew he was going to kill you but you had no idea when or how. Gaara's, though, had a tinge of insanity on it, a serial killer who knew he was going to kill you even if he didn't understand why he was going to do it.  
Regardless, Gaara's killing intent didn't have anywhere near the strength or control that Orochimaru's had. It was noticeable but I didn't feel it in as much of a physical way, it didn't get in my way as I wrenched open the door to Lee's room and stared down the boy who was standing at his bed. Sand was curling out from his hand and through the air, floating over Lee's body.  
"I don't suggest doing that," I said coldly to him.  
He turned his head to look at me just as Shika and Naruto skidded behind me, the prior immediately lashing out with his shadow and locking Gaara in place. The boy's face didn't shift at all for a breath and then I saw his eyes widen marginally.  
"I can't move my hand," he stated, his voice like gravel.  
"What the hell do you think you're doing, you rat?" Naruto shouted, trying to shove past me to get to Gaara.  
I gave him a sharp push back. "Don't."  
"Kasu, he - "  
"I know," I said forcefully. "Shika has him with his shadow, he's not going anywhere. Calm down."  
Gritting his teeth Naruto whirled on the other boy. "So out with it, what are you playing at here, huh?"  
"I was just going to kill him," Gaara said blankly.  
"You already got him once in the competition, what's your problem? Wasn't that enough?" Shika demanded. "Do you have some kind of personal grudge or something?"  
"It's not that complicated, really," the boy responded. His eyes were completely blank of any emotion. "I simply want to kill him."  
"You're crazy!" Naruto shouted.  
"Yeah, like we're going to just stand by and let you do whatever you want, you sick psycho," Shika added.  
I kept silent, watching him stand there. He wasn't even struggling against the hold Shika had on his shadow. I don't think he even cared that much.  
"I'll just kill all three of you if you won't stay out of my way."  
"Yeah, let's just see - "  
"Naruto," I said harshly, taking him off guard. That wasn't a tone I used often but he knew better than to try and argue with me if I did. "Knock it off."  
Shika, on the other hand, was apparently feeling lucky. "Why, Kas? We saw his fight against Lee, we know how tough he is, but he doesn't know what tricks we have up our sleeve." He was bluffing and he knew it. "Not to mention it's three against one. Don't be a fool, just leave. Quietly."  
Gaara wasn't the slightest bit fazed. "I'll say it once more. Get out of my way, or I will kill you."  
Shika paled, seeming to finally realize that we couldn't reason with him. There was no talking with Gaara. There was no reasoning with Gaara. Nothing we could do would actually stop him in this little hospital room. The only hope was to stall him for the backup I knew was coming but neither of them did.  
"I'll say this again: let's see you try!"  
"Back off," Shika hissed. Oh, finally. Somebody agreed with me. "You saw him, he fights like mad! He's like - like a demon or something!"  
"He can fight like a demon all he wants, 'cause you know what? I got the real thing inside of me," Naruto said with a dangerously dark smile.  
I watched Shika's face, unsurprised when the reference didn't seem to faze him.  
"A demon, huh? Well, my demon's as real as yours."  
Gaara launched into his monologue. It was sad to listen to, honestly. As much of a homicidal maniac as he seemed to be, it was hardly all his fault, or entirely the fault of the beast sealed into him. His father was an ass and those who lived in his village were just as bad. It was shocking to me that people were always so quick to show cruelty to somebody who could essentially destroy them with the same amount of energy it takes to lift a hand.  
He didn't know what love was because the only person who'd ever been willing to show it to him was forced to betray him. His siblings were too terrified that he'd hurt them to try and form any relationship with him. The worst was the fact that, as he stated all of it, weaving this story in front of us, he seemed to be almost aware of how fucked up he was. Like he seemed to break everything he ever touched and he didn't know how to stop doing it because it just kept happening, nobody ever tried to help him make sense of it.  
The longer Gaara spoke the paler Naruto seemed to grow. I could see him piecing together the things Gaara's story and his own past had in common, the words 'my demon's as real as yours' dawning on him.  
Then, Gaara's eyes shot wide open and he shouted, "Now, let me feel alive!"  
The mass of sand exploded in motion, flying towards us like a bullet. The room was too small. There was nowhere to run, no way to get away, we were trapped. Desperately I opened my senses and a split second before I recognized the incoming signature I heard a voice behind me shout jovially, "Alright! That's enough of that, let's save it for the competition."  
All at once the sand froze mid-air. I glanced down, eyes wide, duly noting the tendril that was four inches in front of me, poised towards my heart. Slowly it retracted back into the gourd on Gaara's back and Guy took a step into the room, striking a pose.  
Gaara looked from the man in spandex, to us, then staggered towards the door. He held a hand to his head with a pained expression. He stopped in the doorway just long enough to give one final threat of, "I will kill all of you, just you want."  
I watched his signature as he left, tracking it all the way up onto the roof before he was all the way out of my range. Better safe than sorry on that one.  
"Alright here, kids?" Guy asked, flashing us his signature smile and thumbs up.  
I placed a hand over my hammering heart. "We're fine," I answered. "Nice save, Guy-sensei."  
"Of course! I was able to aid both my own student and those of my eternal rival in one fell swoop!"  
The three of us looked to each other before vacating the room. Both of the boys peered around the hall cautiously but I said, "He's gone, trust me."  
Silently we walked down the hall to where Cho's room was. Naruto was still visibly pale from listening to him and Shika seemed shaken, his face set into a carefully blank expression. My hands were shaking. I hadn't thought the sand could move that fast or that he'd even aim for me. If Guy had been any later… yikes.  
Best not to think about it.  
Cho was on his bed, looking bored out of his mind, laying back on it and staring up at the roof, his heels kicking against the mattress. We entered the room and he bolted up, his expression brightening only to fall again when he took in our mood.  
"Hey… what happened?" he asked. "You guys alright?"  
There were only two chairs. I skipped them, sitting next to Cho on the bed instead. Shika looked at me, then to Naruto who was silently staring forward, before giving a shortened version of it, recognizing that neither of us were going to talk.  
"We'd be in a lot of trouble if Guy-sensei hadn't found us," Shika admitted.  
"That's putting it lightly," I muttered.  
"You guys are serious?" Cho asked, eyes wide. "That's nuts!"  
"He said… he said he had something inside of him… Shukaku," the Nara boy said, resting his chin on his hands. "It sounds familiar."  
"Shukaku's the name of the one-tailed beast. It was gifted to sand when all of the beasts were being distributed to the hidden villages. As far as I know, Gaara's the third person to host it since they got it," I said tonelessly. "That's what he meant."  
Shika gave me a long look. "Did you know?"  
"That he had a beast sealed inside of him?" I asked. He nodded. There wasn't much point in lying. The thing was, they'd know. All of three of them were capable of reading when I was lying or telling the truth after all the years I had known them. My lips pulled down in a frown and I ran my hands through the ends of my hair. "Yeah. I can see it in his signature, Jinchuuriki tend to have pretty distinctive chakra signatures."  
"That's why you kept trying to get us to knock it off," he muttered. "Shit."  
"You guys oughta listen to me more."  
"So… can you… can you pick a Jinchuuriki out of a crowd?" Naruto asked quietly.  
My eyes shot up to him. "Yeah."  
All at once, Shika seemed to finally put everything together, hands falling in his lap and eyes wide. "Naruto… you said you had a real demon inside of you… and he said that his demon was as real as yours," he said, slowly, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to even say it at all.  
Naruto's hands tightened in his lap. "I did, didn't I?" His eyes shifted to meet my gaze. "Did you already know that, too?"  
As far as I knew, none of this was supposed to happen. This conversation wasn't supposed to happen, Naruto wasn't supposed to admit to being the container of Kurama, not yet at least. Oh, fuck.  
I closed my eyes and let out a breath between my teeth before I finally said, "Yeah."  
He mulled that over quietly. I didn't know what to really say, so I shifted forward on the bed and crawled into his lap on the chair, curling my arms around his neck to pull him into a hug. The tension in his body lessened and he returned the hug, resting his chin on my shoulder.  
He was scared we were going to judge him like everybody else did.  
"That's rough, man," Shika said, his voice taking on a more normal tone.  
"Yeah," Cho said. Then he reached down beside his bed, pulling out a fruit basket. "Ino gave these to me but I can't have any of them, want some?"  
Naruto flashed him an unusually large grin, reaching around me and grabbing an apple off the top. The conversation drifted off into what they thought was going to happen tomorrow at the finals and I listened contently, happily surprised by the new turn of events.  
.-.-.  
"Kasumi!" mama called as I heard her run up the stairs.  
I looked up from my notes, immediately scanning the house on instinct. Nothing. Of course not.  
"Yeah?"  
She charged through the door, breathless. "What on earth are you going to wear tomorrow?"  
I blinked at her. "Huh?"  
"You're going to be in front of the entire village, the Hokage, and the Daimyo! Not to mention all those other shinobi from the other villages, you need to make a good impression," she cried. "You need something nice to wear!"  
So far, every outfit I had ever bought had gotten absolutely destroyed. Training was hard on clothes without question. Long-term missions like in the Land of Waves were worse. After that, I'd had to try and replace what I ruined, only to completely destroy another outfit during the second part of the exam. I was like the bermuda triangle for clothes.  
Anytime I got something nice it either got lost or was destroyed.  
"Mama - "  
She waved her finger at me. "No, I will hear none of that!"  
"But - "  
"Kasumi, I said none of it! Grab your bag, we're going shopping right now."  
"Yes mama," I murmured, resigning myself to my fate.  
She dragged me around the different stores of Konoha for a grand total of three hours in which I managed to get three separate new outfits. She said she was planning ahead, doing me a favor so that I wouldn't have to suffer through a trip every time I ruined something. Bonding time with mama was something I loved when it didn't involve shopping - she knew what she liked and didn't like, especially when I was the one wearing the clothes.  
I did, at least, manage to get her to take a snack break at one point, grabbing some dango in between one of the stores. That had been the highlight of the day for me. I also managed to steer her towards the weapon stores so I could restock on some of the basics and pick up something to hold my tessen in while I fought.  
After all was said and done mama finally let me drag her home. I threw the door open and collapsed on the ground, letting my bags fall down around me.  
"Thank Kami," I groaned.  
Mama stepped over me and rolled her eyes. "Sweetheart, you better move before I make you move."  
I grumbled but did as she asked, hauling myself up off the ground and dragging my feet up the stairs to my room. I dumped out the bags on my bed and began organizing everything. I had to replace some of my kunai and senbon that had gone missing in the forest along with more materials to make up for all the tags I'd wasted. I didn't have time to do much with it, though I'd manage.  
I started folding up the new clothes. They were pretty nice. Mama was picky for a reason, afterall. I'd at least made sure she let me pay for some of it this time - we'd gotten a pretty significant amount of money from the Land of Waves mission and what I bought today barely even put a dent in that.  
I felt mama drift into the room behind me.  
"Come now," she murmured. "Your folding job is terrible."  
"I folded them exactly how you taught me!"  
She messed one of the piles up and then refolded them. "No, that's how I taught you to do it."  
I snorted. "They look exactly the same."  
"Only to the young, untrained eye, my dear daughter."  
I turned towards her and realized they her eyes were misting over. "Mama?"  
She gathered me up into a hug. "Oh, sweetheart." She held me tightly there for a minute and then pulled away, raising her hand to run her thumb over the scar on my face. "I want you to be careful tomorrow, alright?"  
"Of course," I said softly.  
"Papa and I won't be here in the morning when you leave," she said. "With the amount of activity they're going to need all hands on deck at the restaurant, so we're going to be there early to help out."  
I already knew they wouldn't be coming. It was one thing to know that I was going to be fighting, a whole other to actually have to watch it happen. Probably for the best - them being there would likely just end up distracting me.  
"Alright, mama. I'll make sure to swing by there for lunch after I win the tournament," I joked with a small laugh.  
"That's my girl," she said and dropped a kiss on my forehead. "I'll be starting dinner soon, when you're done up here can you come down and help?"  
"Yeah," I replied, trying to keep the worry from my voice.  
The house was at least somewhat safe. There were places to hide in the house during the invasion, but there'd be nowhere for them to go at the restaurant. What could I tell them? I fell back on the bed, ignoring the piles of clothes, and let my eyes close, desperately forcing down the panic.  
Tomorrow was going to suck.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX  
.-.-.  
After leaving the manor, Maen and I had split up. He went off to get a bit of information from the seedier parts of the village and I was currently situated at the back end of the Yamazaki estate. I hadn't been in the best of moods - a trend for the current mission - when we were ushered out of the gates of the Mori estate, something I attributed to why Maen had been so quick to suggest separating.  
Laughter echoed from the sprawling home, voices and instruments joined together in a symphony spurred on by copious amounts of sake. Rich people and their parties.  
I crouched down a bit further, taking in a deep breath of the damp soil around me. It'd been a couple of hours now and the sun had long since dropped beneath the horizon, the light of the moon spilling down around me. I'd spent the first chunk of time roaming around the area outside the manor, listening in on conversations of the people milling in and out. Once it started to get dark I crept away from the crowds, moving into the forested areas around the manor, taking a peek on what was going on inside the manor. The building itself was shoved up in the back of the village, allowing for privacy without being completely cut off from the village - though I was thankful because it gave me easy cover and something to lean my back against if I wanted to.  
A couple of people stumbled around the gardens I could see inside the gating, giggling and hugging each other. The guards looked between each other before one of the pairs broke away to go and shoo them back inside. From what I gathered, parties like this were commonplace, the vast majority of the people inside only there for the free sake.  
Slowly, methodically, I stretched out my senses, pushing them as far as I could manage. The scene displayed to me through signatures was very much as I had hoped - entirely civilian and entirely drunk, allowing for a decent amount of leeway when I was trying to work my way through the manor. I had a vague idea of the floor plan, but it was harder to get anything concrete given the dimness of civilian signatures and the distance I was from the actual building.  
"Anything?" Maen's voice asked, crackling to life over the radios.  
"I'm not sensing anything other than a shit ton of civilians," I answered. "From here, there's nothing worth worrying about."  
"Hmm," he said. "Try looking to the lower levels of the manor. I've heard that's where any of the business happens."  
"Got it," I said. I pushed my senses down, trying to wade through the mass of signatures, but it was hard to really discern anything. Going purely on my chakra senses and not using my eyes had its drawbacks; chakra senses didn't come with depth perception and they could be muddled by having signatures overlapping. "I can't tell from all the way back here, I'm going to get closer to try and get a clearer look."  
I inched forward, keeping myself low to the ground and holding my senses open, letting out a sigh when I still couldn't make out anything useful. Instead I opened my eyes and observed what I could see through the darkness. From my position I could see the guards patrolling the outer gates in groups of two. They were a bit far for me to say for certain but if their armor and katana were any indication they appeared to be more than just typical thugs.  
"I think he's got samurai doing his patrol," I murmured. "It's hard for me to tell. I'm going to get a bit closer."  
"Alright."  
"Definitely samurai," I said, squinting against the night.  
"How many?"  
I closed my eyes, focusing on the signatures scattered around the outside of the manor. "Ten groups of two, each about fifty metres apart, rotating around the premises."  
"Do you think you can get through them?"  
"Easily," I said.  
"Good, because I want you to get into the manor."  
My lips pulled down in a scowl even though I was speaking to him over a radio. "What?" I hissed. "Now?"  
"Yes, now," he replied. "Our best bet of getting this done is while it's still dark out and everybody in that building is too drunk to notice a new face."  
We hadn't discussed anything about what I'd do once I got into the manor aside from the little chat we had just outside of Konoha. Sure, I could get in. Sure, I could use a genjutsu to keep myself from being detected by the civilians. For how long though? We'd spent an entire day travelling and the lack of chakra at my disposal and general weariness in my bones wasn't lost on me. Even with a short chance to sleep when we broke for lunch I was starting to feel the effects of exhaustion creeping up on me.  
I had been anticipating spending the night sleeping.  
I rubbed a tired hand over my face. "What about having somebody at the perimeter?"  
"I'm on my way to your position," he said. Now that I was actually listening, I could make out the faint sounds of wind whistling past his microphone as he spoke. "I'll be there in five minutes, use that time to think up a plan."  
"Right, a plan," I muttered.  
A plan.  
I needed a plan.  
I could get in without a problem but I didn't have enough chakra to hold the genjutsu for the entire time I was in there. Genjutsus never came naturally for me, and even the easiest of them tended to take up significant amount of chakra. I never thought much of it - everybody had their weak points. With my exceptional chakra control, ninjutsus were never hard for me to perform, so long as I had enough chakra to perform them. Taijutsu had only become comfortable with a significant amount of work and bull-headed stubbornness. Genjutsu, though, never seemed to get easier, no matter how much I worked at it.  
It was because of that that I was able to very quickly throw away the idea of just henging myself and flouncing my way through the manor. Any genin could perform a henge. It was a better option than the genjutsu I had in mind but it took almost twice as much chakra. I did have a soldier pill I could use sitting in my back pocket, the only thing was that I was hoping to save it for an emergency. I only had the one pill and I only had one dose of the cure for backlash.  
I'd have to stick to just the genjutsu. It was the simplest of the genjutsu you ever learn in the Academy, intended to be used as a last resort if you were hiding out. You didn't mask your presence, per se, you simply influenced people to keep looking past you. Any shinobi worth their hitae-ate wouldn't buy it but civilians weren't perceptive enough to catch on.  
"How's that plan coming?"  
I let out an undignified squawk, reeling back. Maen gave me an unimpressed look, hands in his pockets and shoulder leant against the trunk of a tree, casually watching me. Once I regained my composure my gaze darted down to the patrols who thankfully hadn't noticed.  
"Kami, Maen," I hissed. "What the hell was that?"  
"You should be paying better attention to your surroundings," he chastised. "I could have been an enemy."  
I screwed my face up in annoyance. "I can't focus on my chakra senses and simultaneously work up a doable plan."  
"Learn to."  
"I'll work on it," I snapped.  
"I was hoping that you'd be less irritable if you had a bit of time on your own," he drawled.  
"I'll be in a better mood once I have the chance to actually sleep."  
"Sleep when the mission is over," he said easily. His gaze moved to the bags under my eyes and softened some. "This party is the best cover we're going to get, princess. It can't wait until morning."  
I pinched the bridge of my nose, silently counting down from ten. Calm. Throttling your commanding officer is against protocol in so many ways - especially because I knew he was right. "Whatever. Did you just come here to grind on my nerves or are you going to give me anything constructive to work with?"  
His lips quirked up. "Neither. I'm here to watch your perimeter while you have all the fun."  
I waved a hand at him in annoyance, tuning out his presence while I tried to finalize some semblance of a plan. I still didn't even know where exactly the books were going to be not to mention what I was going to be dealing with once I did find them; I could only hold my genjutsu for so long, especially considering I was terrible at them and hadn't even tried to use this particular one since the time of the Academy.  
"Advice?" I asked hopefully.  
He paused, looking at me thoughtfully. "Ideally, you won't spend the entire time under a genjutsu," he said surprisingly. I blinked - I hadn't expected him to actually answer me.  
"I already figured that part," I shot back, trying to keep my tone neutral.  
"Okay, so you'll need to figure out how you're going to blend in," he answered. "And we both know that you won't pass as a party patron, especially not in that adorable little getup of yours."  
"House staff?"  
"Ideally. A house as big as that, there's no chance anybody in there knows all of the staff."  
"Okay," I murmured, more to myself than anything. "Okay."  
"You think you can do it?" Maen asked. "If not, this is your last chance to back out."  
I bit my lip.  
I had thought I'd have no problems, dismissing my chances of getting discovered based on the lack of shinobi, but now I was starting to feel doubtful about my chances. I was inexperienced and had pretty much no idea what I was throwing myself into, not to mention my current physical state.  
That didn't change the fact that I wanted this experience. The conversation we had about what the hell I was going to do with my future got me thinking about exactly that. Infiltration was a good option, whether that road led down to ANBU or not. This was a relatively risk-free environment for me to see exactly what that kind of pressure feels like; at best I'd make it through without alerting anybody and at worst we'd fail the mission.  
Long story short - I didn't know if I could do it but I was damn well going to try anyways.  
"I got it," I said, steeling my nerves. "I can do it."  
"Good. Off you go, then."  
As tempting as it was to just use my bloodlimit I pushed my fingers through the hand seals for the genjutsu and let the chakra wash over me.  
You will look past me.  
You will look past me.  
You will look past me.  
Maen quirked an eyebrow. "If you decide you do want to go into infiltration your genjutsu needs some serious work."  
"Fuck off."  
I took off, running forward and launching myself upwards, only putting enough chakra into my muscles to clear the gating around the manor. My feet hit the soil with a soft thud and the guard stationed closest to me whipped around.  
His partner turned to look at him. "What is it?"  
"Didn't you hear that?" the man asked.  
My back went stiff and I froze in my crouched position. Their eyes moved towards me, tracking the source of the noise, but they swept over me without any pause, narrowed suspiciously. I held my breath.  
"There is nothing there," the partner said, his voice tinged with annoyance.  
The man sighed. "Yeah, yeah. I could have sworn I heard something, though."  
The partner too turned around and sent a sweeping gaze around the gardens before he simply shook his head. "I cannot see anything, you likely just heard some small animal. They have taken quite a liking to the gardens."  
The man's lips turned up in a hint of a grin. "Hopefully no bunnies, can't forget the last time we had an infestation of those."  
"True enough," the partner chuckled.  
The two men both turned their backs to me again, moving on in their patrol.  
My breath flew out of me and I slipped forward further through the gardens towards the manor. Aside from the guards staked out on the perimeter there weren't any others patrolling inside the garden itself, making my job all the easier.  
I placed my hands against the side of the building, pushing a bit of chakra into them and pulling myself up a short distance before attaching the soles of my feet against it as well. I opened my senses, searching for an empty room that would be ripe for the sneaking. I had to scale over to the left some before I finally found a suitable place to make my entrance.  
With a soft shove the window creaked open, a gust of warm air rushing out from inside the room. I shimmied through the opening and assessed the room as my feet hit the wooden floors.  
The room was small, with a bed off on the side and a small wardrobe pressed up against the other wall, a modest vanity nestled beside it. It seemed entirely out of place for a residence like this. No room this small was suitable for the wealthy and if the intention of the room was just for sex there'd be nothing in here but a bed. A grin tugged at my lips - I never thought myself to be lucky, but this might change that.  
"Servant housing," I breathed. "Score."  
I dropped the genjutsu and assessed my chakra reserves. The three minutes under the genjutsu and my short climb up the side of the manor had left me with a little under a third of my reserves. If everything went as planned, that would be more than enough to keep myself from being discovered.  
I hurried forward to raid the wardrobe, discarding my dirty clothes in favor of one of the many long-sleeved brown shirts and ankle-length black skirts. The clothes were a bit big and I had to knot the shirt at the back and hike the skirt up some to keep it from dragging. Haphazardly I tugged my hair out of its braids and rewound it up into a bun that sat at the back of my head. I moved my head a little, satisfied that it was secured before I moved back a bit, double checking that it looked alright in the mirror of the vanity.  
The reflection that looked back at me was still young but less so that before. I could pass for my age, maybe a bit older, at best, so long as people were willing to discount my height some. Thankfully most manors tended to hire girls off the street for cheap, aiming for quantity over quality. A young servant girl wouldn't look terribly out of place.  
I held the dirty clothes under my arm and scanned the halls; the servant wing might be a tad risky if I'm caught leaving a room that's not my own. Better to be safe than sorry. I pulled the genjutsu back over me and left the room, peering over my shoulder as I went to ensure that I hadn't left any kind of tracks during my short stint in there.  
Just as I was exiting the wing a high-pitched set of giggles entered my ears and I felt a mass of signatures making their way towards me. I lay back flush against the wall and a gaggle of girls, all dressed in the servant clothes, breezed past me, a strong smell of perfume surging with them. One of them did a curious double take but her eyes skirted past me. Her friend elbowed her in the ribs, nudging her forward anxiously. She gave a short huff but shrugged off her suspicion and followed the group towards their rooms.  
I shook out my hands, only realizing after they'd left that I'd balled them up into tight fists at my side. I dropped the genjutsu and continued on my way, much more likely to anonymously blend in now.  
I surreptitiously scattered the pieces of my outfit along the halls as I made my way towards the lower floors of the manor, not wanting to leave them all in one clump as a precaution. All sorts of items were strewn about the hallways so the clothes wouldn't look entirely out of place. The whole thing reminded me of a frat house during a particularly lively party, but with sake and prostitutes instead of beer and seniors.  
That wonderful comparison occupied my mind as I worked my way through the manor. I tried to take the least populated hallways while I tried to locate the part of the manor I was looking for but I found myself being flagged down by people with requests that I had no intention of fulfilling. Most of them were so drunk they'd probably have completely forgotten that they'd even requested anything by the time I would have brought it back to them - not that I had the first idea of how I'd get them what they wanted.  
I was, afterall, a shinobi, not an actual servant.  
I knew I found what I was looking for when I scurried past a pair of guards posted in front of a staircase. I kept moving all the way around the corner before I pushed my fingers through the seals again and rather than cover myself in the genjutsu I moved back, right at the edge of the hallway, getting as close to them as possible without being visible. They were close together, normally not a huge deal but there was no way I was going to slip past them without actually touching them.  
The genjutsu only worked so long as you at least sort of blended in. In the garden, I was hidden partially by the dark, and they'd been ready to pass my presence off as nothing more than some stray animals scurrying out at night. In the servant wing, I was just another servant girl, making her way to do whatever was needed of her.  
A thirteen year old crawling over the walls and ceiling? Yeah, not a single thing about that could be passed off.  
Rather than risk the genjutsu I moved my fingers through the familiar seals, intoned the familiar words and turned on my bloodlimit. I scrambled forward, whipping around the corner with record speed. I awkwardly vaulted over their heads and grasped onto the top of the entrance of the staircase, using my grip to swing myself down into the hallways. The second I cleared their backs I let the bloodlimit drop. The total time using it hit in around four seconds - not much, but a noticeable blow to my current levels because of how low they already were.  
It was looking more and more like I was going to be stuck using the soldier pill. Keeping it was a precaution, a 'just in case' type of thing should we get attacked on the way back to the village. That and using two in such a short time-frame wasn't too nice on my chakra coils.  
I walked down the hallways with soft steps, splitting my attention between tracking the signatures and straining my ears for the slightest sound. It was dead silent. A little disconcerting but not unexpected - I already knew there wasn't anybody around. Shinobi were hardwired to be distrustful of silence, one of the many paranoia beat into our heads from a young age.  
I held my shoulder against the hallway as I went. It was larger than I had initially imagined, full of twists and turns, doors lining the corridors. I opened each door I came across, scanning the rooms efficiently before moving on, the weight in my gut growing heavier as I went. This was taking too long.  
My voyage in the mansion wasn't time sensitive, per se, but I wasn't going to linger.  
"Can you give me any help?" I murmured into my mic. "It's like a labyrinth down here."  
"I couldn't get anything that specific, princess. You're on your own down there," Maen answered.  
"Wonderful."  
"Could be worse."  
"How?"  
"I might not have found out it was in the lower part of the manor."  
"Touche," I muttered.  
Having to search the entire manor would have been a clusterfuck and a half. The lowest level, while still sizeable, was the smallest of the levels, less than half as big as the other two and most importantly empty except for the one group in the far end of it.  
My hand gripped the doorknob to my left and I tested it, twisting the knob to the left, then right, listening as it jiggle but didn't open. Locked. That was the first one that I couldn't just open up - I was going to take that as a good sign. My hand unconsciously went to slip into my back pouch and hit air. Right. No gear on me.  
I couldn't just break in.  
I bit my lip.  
"Door's locked," I whispered. "I have no way to get at the keys without arousing suspicion."  
"You seriously didn't anticipate a locked door?"  
"I'm new to this, okay?" I hissed angrily. "And you haven't exactly been a well of information either."  
The radio was dead for half a second before he answered, "Bird, Dog, Boar, Ox. Infiltration Art: Thief's Shadow."  
"That'll open the door?"  
"It's a bit tricky, so I'd watch your chakra if I were you, but it's a staple in most infiltrators skill set."  
And there was the age old problem of mine. My chakra reserves. "I don't exactly have large reserves, Maen."  
"Most infiltrators use it freely enough that it shouldn't be a massive strain on you."  
"Let me be more clear: I have tiny reserves and they're pretty much tapped after an entire fucking day travelling."  
"Have fun finding your key, then."  
I grit my teeth. The odds of me finding that key were low and the odds of me being able to get said key were even lower. I had no choice and that was the most infuriating part. Right now, I might have enough chakra to perform the jutsu, but only if I got it on either the first or second try and while my control was fantastic, it wasn't that good, not yet. Maybe one day I could pull off a jutsu on the first shot. When I was older, had further honed my control, and had enough chakra to waste when said control faltered.  
A breath hissed out between my teeth. Grudgingly I reached back into my pocket, producing the soldier pill I had packed and the tonic to help me get over it. I popped the pill into my mouth and the sudden rush of chakra into my system sent a shiver down my spine. The tonic followed soon after, guaranteeing that I would feel none of the backlash, letting me ride the high free of charge.  
My fingers moved through the seals and I whispered, "Infiltration Art: Thief's Shadow."  
Something whooshed in front of me, a wisp in the wind that took a shape I couldn't recognize, a short blip of chakra. Part of me wondered if he purposefully didn't tell me what the jutsu was supposed to do.  
I repeated the seals and muttered the words, rewarding me with something a little stronger, a shape in the wind that vaguely resembled a key. Closer and closer. Thankfully, the jutsu didn't tap too heavily on my reserves, making me thankful that Maen had taken pity on me and given me this helpful of a jutsu to add to my repertoire. Sure, I could pick most locks, but it was nice to know that if I was ever in a pinch, I had a way to do it without any tools.  
It took a total of six tries before the jutsu came to fruition in front of me, chakra and wind combining together to take the form of a key that slid forward into the lock, shaping itself to whatever was needed. A soft click signaled the door was now open for my perusing.  
"Thank you," I said over the comms.  
"'Course, princess."  
I let the princess slide.  
Slowly I turned the door, closing it behind me and flicking the light switch on. The sense of victory that had unfurled inside me dimmed some when the chandelier in the centre of the ceiling illuminated an impressively expansive library.  
"Fuck me."  
It was, really, a process of elimination. I spent the better part of half an hour wandering through the shelves, taking each book down one by one, flipping through the pages until I could say with certainty that it wasn't what we needed.  
Eventually I ran my finger down the spine of a book labelled 'How to Pick up Honourable Maidens' and let out a derisive snort. I pulled it from the shelf and half-heartedly let it fall open on my palm, expecting a wide variety of shitty pick up lines that might serve to lighten my mood. I thumbed through the first few pages, chuckling to myself lightly a few times. Not half bad. My brows furrowed together as I flicked to the next page and found a list of names staring up at me.  
"The ultimate red herring," I marveled. "Oh, thank you Kami."  
I kept on going and the list of names ended, replaced with a variety of what I assumed were products paired up with their proper prices. It was all there. Right in front of me. There would be a lot for me to write, that was no question, the task something that would likely take a couple of hours at best. But it was doable and that was all that mattered.  
The information was easily committed to memory and I carefully placed the book back exactly as I found it, nestled in its home on the shelf.  
I pushed my thumb against the button to turn on my mic and said, "I've got the information, leaving the premises now."  
"Nice job," the voice came in reply. "Do you have the book?"  
"Photographic memory," I answered, the words rolling off my tongue. It wasn't a lie, not really, just a gross understatement. "Don't need the book."  
"Good to know."  
I did a short check for signatures, noting that whatever had been happening deeper in the manor had ended, leaving the entire lower level of the manor devoid of life except for me. I opened the door and pushed it shut behind me, using the jutsu to lock it again. I hurried back through the set of halls, watching for any signatures to pop out at me. There were none.  
I climbed up the stairs until I could just see the backs of the guards. I jumped up, attaching myself to the ceiling with a bit of chakra and climbing forward, detaching my hands so I could run my fingers through the seals to activate my bloodlimit. Moving forward like this I climbed over their hands and kept going across the wall, simultaneously dropping my bloodlimit as I cut the chakra to my limbs, ungracefully falling to the floor.  
Alright.  
The way out, then.  
My eyes sought out the nearest window.  
There was one at the end of the hall, the edge of it peeking out from behind the corner of the wall. There wasn't much point in trying to be inconspicuous anymore - I had nothing left to do in there. With how many sets of clothes that wardrobe had been filled with, she wouldn't notice the ones I had taken. If she did, what did it matter? Clothes go missing all the time.  
I walked down the hall, consciously keeping my pace normal, watching for the signatures to pop up on my radar. There were three near to the window, another two lingering further down. I repeated the seals and the words, weaving forward towards the window, snaking my way out the narrow opening into the cool night air.  
I could have climbed down the side of the manor. It would have been easy, but I gave myself the small pleasure of pushing off the side of the building and plummeting towards the ground Assassins Creed style, softening my landing with some chakra.  
My senses opened and Maen's signature jumped out at me, a fair ways off to my right.  
The trip back to my team leader was short and held no slip ups.  
Maen glanced up at me as I approached, his eyes moving down to his watch before back to me. "A bit slow."  
"Oh?"  
"Mhm," he hummed. "The clothes are a nice touch, though."  
"I think it's a good look for me," I agreed. "Mature."  
The man snorted. "You couldn't look mature even if puberty smacked you upside the head."  
"I beg to differ," I said. "The skirt makes my butt look bigger."  
"Does it really?"  
"You didn't look?"  
"Gross, princess."  
I waved a hand at him. "Whatever. Let's just get back to the hotel so that I can write this shit out and we can go home."  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN  
.-.-.  
The trip to the hotel was a quick one. I'd been able to ease chakra into my limbs, pushing away some of the ache and exhaustion from my body. I still craved a good night's sleep but that could at least be kept at bay while I dealt with copying out the information I'd gotten.  
I settled down on the chair in the corner which gave me a good vantage point of the entire room and was surprisingly comfortable. A book lay open in my lap, partially full of my messy writing, my fingers stiff from having to write for as long as I had been. The soft breathing in front of me echoed through the otherwise silent air, a sure sign that I was the only one awake in the room.  
We agreed on the way here that there wasn't any reason for both of us to be stuck awake, so while I spent three hours painstakingly writing out ever name for the client and every product paired with its price, Maen was going to get some sleep. Though, 'product' wasn't quite the word I'd use for all of them - I still had a bad taste in my mouth from the first time I realized that some of the prices were, in fact, attached to names of people. Black market trade wasn't limited only to items.  
It was a stark reminder that this world was a dark one. I had been sorely tempted to leave out those bits of information, or at the very least altering the prices to throw the client off using the information, but ultimately decided against it. Odds were good that the client would notice. While Naruto might be able to get away with sticking to his morals and brute-forcing people into seeing things the way he did, I'd never be as lucky. Worst case scenario, if the client noticed that we altered the information it would be grounds for him to try and terminate the mission contract, and I didn't doubt he'd do so without hesitation.  
As horrible as it was to think, this kind of business wasn't out of the ordinary. Human trafficking wasn't used in Konoha or any of the cities within half a day's travel from the village; anything that close was bound to get shut down quickly and painlessly by a small shinobi squad to help keep the squeaky clean image of Konoha intact. Further out put it off the radars of the village, but it didn't reach the edge of the countryside due to there not being any interest in the dirty business. It stayed in the middle section of the Land of Fire, a dark truth that was known to exist but didn't affect enough people to be seen as a big issue in the country.  
I was no exception. While it felt like a blow to my morals to have to pass on this kind of information, it was an almost detached disgust. I wasn't the one selling people like livestock. I wasn't the one coming up with these prices. Hell, there was a chance that even if I did pass on the information it wouldn't contribute to the business, given that the client might not find any use in a set of names coupled with a set of numbers. I was just a shinobi doing my job.  
Or, maybe, it was just easier to let myself believe that.  
It wouldn't be the last time I was going to have to ignore my morals for the sake of completing a mission. And as much as I hated to admit it, it was a bit disturbing just how easily I could disconnect myself from my morals. The logical part of my brain was glad that I was capable of doing it, especially if I did end up going into infiltration.  
I set down the pen, massaging the cramps out of my hand. My eyes drifted over to the clock, frowning as the time 12:48am was displayed in bold red numbers. It felt like years since I'd had a proper night's sleep. It'd already been discussed that after I finished with writing out the information Maen would take it to the client. There was no need for a formal meeting, so long as the information was passed onto him. After that we'd be on the move. Maen had volunteered to just carry me part of the way home until I woke up and could travel for myself. Both of us had packed extremely light and given my size I wouldn't be much of a burden weight wise. Thankfully, he seemed to be in as much of a hurry to get back to the village as I was, though I could guarantee our reasons were vastly different.  
I had successfully kept my mind off of what might be waiting for me back at the village for the mission. Worrying about what I was going back to would have just been a distraction from the job at hand and I couldn't afford that.  
That and the fact that, the more I thought on it, the less sure I was of exactly when things started to happen after the invasion.  
The shows didn't come with a clock. I knew the sequence of events, but I was starting to realize that I had no context for how fast those events were happening. The invasion happened. A memorial for Hiruzen would be held. Jiraiya and Naruto would go off hunting for Tsunade. Itachi would attack the village, injuring Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke would chase him and get pub-stomped by his brother. In the show, I'd always assumed that the entire sequence took place within a couple of days of the invasion.  
However, by the time I left, the village didn't even know that we'd lost our Hokage and the administrative side of the village was scrambling to get things in order. So far, we'd only been gone a day and a half and we were ahead schedule, Maen estimating that if we travelled quickly enough we could be sleeping in our beds by tomorrow night. His hurry to make it back in time made me wonder if he was still hoping we'd get back in time for the memorial. If that was true then maybe our motives for getting home as soon as possible weren't so different after all.  
And really, at the end of the day, it's not like worrying about it would magically provide help for them back in the village if something was happening. I'd either get back in time or I wouldn't.  
I let out a sigh - I'd been hoping to actually get a good night's sleep. How painfully optimistic of me.  
I picked up the pen and resumed my task. It took me one more hour to get everything copied out and after doing a double check to make sure that everything was written properly I shook Maen awake. He took the book over to the manor as agreed. If nobody was willing to take it and pass it on we'd decided the best bet was to just break in and just leave it in the client's room. Waiting to hand it off in a meeting would just waste hours that could be spent travelling.  
Keeping my eyes open while I was the only one in the hotel room was a major test of my willpower that I only barely managed to pass. By the time Maen returned, thankfully empty handed, I had settled into the chair, legs curled up to my chest and arms wrapped around them, my chin sitting on my knees.  
He gave me a bemused look. "Quite the attentive guard you are."  
"Fuck off."  
"Is that any way to speak to your commanding officer?"  
"Fuck you."  
His eyes rolled but didn't bother chastising me. Either he didn't care enough to scold me or the bags under my eyes were buying me some sympathy points. "Is the pack ready?"  
I wordlessly motioned down towards the bag at my feet. He bent down and quickly rifled through them himself before tossing it to me. I stood, stretching out and inwardly wincing at the stiffness in my muscles, built up from being stuck in one spot for too long. I threw the bag over my shoulders and climbed onto his back, feeling an annoying familiarity come over me as I stared at the world from over his shoulder, having spent the last bit of my time heading back from the Land of Waves in the same position.  
At least this time, though, if a fight broke out I'd actually be able to do something.  
He cupped his hand under my knees and, because we're shinobi, passed up the door to the room and just hopped out the window. The speed at which Maen flew through the trees chilled the air some, pointing out just how much he'd held himself back on the way here to allow me to keep up without too much struggle. He'd probably cover more ground while I was asleep than we would once I woke up if he was able to maintain a pace like this.  
I tried to fall asleep and, amazingly, found myself struggling. After a couple of minutes I finally asked, "So what'd you do with the book?"  
"You should be sleeping."  
"I will," I answered. "I'm just curious."  
"One of the guards recognized me from earlier on in the day," he said. "Took the book from me and promised it'd go straight to Lord Mori."  
"Are you sure that was a good idea? We could have just waited for the morning," I said even though I was glad we'd just done it this way.  
"We could have," he allowed. "But there wasn't any point in wasting the time."  
Hit the nail on the head for that one, then. "In a hurry?"  
"Yeah."  
I blinked in surprise, not having expected him to actually answer me. "What's the rush?"  
His shoulders tensed. Interesting. Sensitive topic, I suppose - if it was the memorial like I assumed, then it was understandably so. The death of our hokage was a sore point for most of Konoha's citizens, especially the shinobi.  
"Just got an important appointment I need to be there for," he said vaguely.  
"Oh?"  
He reached back and flicked me in the nose. "Go to sleep, nosy little brat," he muttered, the words holding no sting. "I don't think I can handle any more of your cranky ass."  
"That's princess nosy brat to you," I said, the last of my words being cut off with a yawn.  
He let out a snort.  
Ah, yes. There it was.  
The conversation ended there. My chin fell against his shoulder and I lazily watched the trees go by until my eyes eventually fell shut, the exhaustion taking hold.  
.-.-.  
The woman sat on a chair that looked like it was made of clouds, her elbows on her knees and her fingers knit together, her chin resting softly on top of them. Her expression was lit up with amusement as she watched the man in front of her pace heatedly across the ground, the crystal ball flashing images in the background that seemed to be long forgotten.  
"My love," she said, a hint of a laugh in her voice. "This will do you no good."  
The man threw his hands up. "He was doing so well!"  
"He still might," she replied, immediately catching onto the subject.  
"He will not!" the man countered heatedly. "He is… he is completely messing with the fabric of the world!"  
"It is but a small change, should it even truly come into play," she pointed out. "There is a high chance nothing will come out of it."  
"Oh, but you know the girl will make her change too, she is far too emotionally to let things play out the way they must."  
"They are mortals," she mused. "To try and assume their future actions is trivial."  
He let out an exasperated breath. "We shouldn't have to assume their actions!"  
"They are under no orders," she reminded him.  
"They must know that messing with the future will have dire consequences!"  
"How could they? Neither of them have truly changed anything yet."  
The man's mouth twisted into a scowl. "That is not a lesson they can afford to learn first hand."  
The woman stood, gliding over to where the man stood. Her one hand rested on his shoulder, the other on his cheek. "I have not seen you so worked up in a millennia."  
He scoffed. "You know my feelings about this entire situation."  
"I do, and you know mine," she said, and the tip of her lips quirked up into a gentle smile. "It is but in our nature to disagree on such things."  
"Were we truly the best choices for this task?" he inquire.  
"I think so."  
"Well, I do not."  
"I am aware. Very aware, truly - you have not allowed me to forget since this began."  
"My worries are valid," he said. "The boy is making an atrociously foolish mistake."  
"It is not atrociously foolish, nor is it a mistake, not yet at least," she countered. "It is simply a mortal living their life."  
The man pulled away, moving back towards the crystal ball. "Yes, well, we'll see if you still feel that way in the aftermath."  
.-.-.  
The bright sun beat against my closed eyelids, far brighter and warmer than one typically expected for mid October, even in the Land of Fire. I cracked my eyes open and groaned - if it was even possible, I felt like I'd slept too much.  
Maen slowed his pace some. "Finally awake back there?"  
"How long did you let me sleep?" I asked, a husky rasp in my voice.  
He looked up at the sky. "I think you were out for a good eight hours."  
"Eight hours?" I yelped. "Why didn't you wake me up?"  
"Travelling is easier this way," he said. "Besides, I did try and wake you up. You wouldn't budge."  
"Must not have tried hard enough, I'm a light sleeper," I grunted.  
"Didn't seem that way to me. You slept through an entire fight."  
An odd cross between a gasp and an indignant squawk arose from my throat. "You let me sleep while you fought?"  
He turned his head to give me a smirk. "No, but I wanted to see how you'd react if I thought you did."  
"Not nice," I huffed, though an odd feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.  
Chakra exhaustion tended to make me sleep like a rock. It was dangerous and I hated that I was even in a position where, had he needed me - as unlikely as it was - I wouldn't have been available to help.  
"Don't get so worked up over it, princess," he said. "It happens to the best of us. I'm just surprised you're even awake now."  
The frown on my face didn't ease. "I took a soldier pill back when I was in the bottom level of the manor," I said. "I needed the extra chakra for the jutsu you told me about."  
"Makes sense," he said.  
"And I will get worked up over it because it's dangerous."  
I couldn't see from my vantage point, but I was fairly sure he was rolling his eyes at me. "So dramatic."  
"Whatever."  
Maen let himself drop down from the branches of the trees, giving me a chance to wake myself up and get fully back to my senses. Even though I wasn't thrilled Maen let me sleep that long I'd be a damn liar if I tried to say that I felt better than I have in a long while. Eight hours of sleep going undisturbed by nightmares had done me wonders.  
After I'd gotten myself sorted out we resumed travel. As I suspected, Maen had covered a significant amount of ground, getting us most of the way there with minimal breaks. We only had a few hours before we'd be bursting back through the gates of Konoha nearly a day early. The pace Maen set was a bit much for me but I soldiered through it. If he could handle it after already being on the move for eight hours I could handle it after having just slept for eight hours.  
We were about an hour off Maen finally broke the silence that had settled in the air.  
"Has this little mission given you any more insight on what you want to do with your future?" he inquired.  
I gave the closest thing to a shrug I could manage while leaping between branches. "Infiltration might be a good option for me."  
"Definite no to tracking, then?"  
"All the tracking skills I have are my chakra senses," I admitted.  
We had the basic tracking of the Academy and Kakashi-sensei taught us some easy tricks, though those were mostly for Naruto's sake should he ever get himself lost while on a mission.  
He turned his head to give me a brief look over his shoulders. "Do you really need more than that?"  
"As of right now, my senses can only go so far as two kilometres, so if I'm tracking somebody who's further off than that then I'm pretty much screwed. That and like what happened back at the manor last night, it can be hard for me to get a specific feel for signatures because there can be interference from other chakra sources. It's… hard to explain. From up above I can use my eyes to help me sort through what I'm sensing, but in a case where I'm going purely on sense, which would probably be the case with tracking, it's a bit harder."  
"Interesting," he murmured.  
He was moving a bit further ahead of me, obscuring his expression from my view. His voice held a calculating tone, as if he had a puzzle in his head that he was trying to pieces together and I'd just given him an important clue. It set a chill of unease through my spine.  
"Is it really?" I answered with a breathy laugh.  
"It's not common to get a civilian with such peculiar chakra senses."  
"Yeah, well…"  
"If that's really all that's stopping you from trying for tracking, you can always ask your sensei. He's one of the best trackers the village's ever had."  
My brows furrowed, my shoulders tensing. "I never told you who my sensei is."  
The man was unfazed by the sharp hint that glinted off my words. "The second you told me to 'fuck off' I knew you were Kakashi's kunoichi," he snorted.  
The muscles in my upper body relaxed some. "You're not the first person to say that."  
"The jonin-sensei like to gather at the jonin lounge when they complain about all of you little genin," he explained. "It's a bit hard to miss - especially if Guy is part of the conversation."  
And oh, did that ever explain a lot.  
Every time I've ever been recognized as being a student of enigmatic jonin suddenly had a lot more context. I'd blown it off, given that my teammates was hard to miss - the village jinchuriki, the last uchiha, and Kakashi of the Sharingan. Not enough people were aware that I had some exotic bloodlimit for me to be known like that.  
"You said he can teach me stuff about tracking?" I asked, not wanting to get into those kinds of thoughts.  
"I can't see him saying no," Maen said. "He always complains that he doesn't really know what to do with you."  
"He does?" I blurted out, trying to ignore the pang of emotion I felt in my chest.  
He turned to look at me again, this time actually rolling his eyes and scoffing. "Don't act like a wounded puppy, princess - I'm still ninety-nine percent sure you're his favourite," he said.  
The cold emotion that had curled into my belly warmed considerably and I held back a stupid grin in favor of a small smile. In the anime, it'd been fairly obvious that Sasuke was the favourite on the team. Hell, Kakashi-sensei taught him the Chidori, the only jutsu he'd ever made himself. He saw a lot of himself in Sasuke. During training though Kakashi-sensei didn't show much bias.  
Thinking about it now, regardless of the fact that it did kind of hurt to consider, it made sense that he wouldn't know what to do with me. Kakashi Hatake, a man famed for his ninjutsu, didn't really have much to teach somebody who couldn't use ninjutsu in their skill set.  
That fact wasn't all that obvious when we first started training. I had my summoning contract that we worked on - it was after that got settled that the situation became a bit more apparent. All the major chakra control exercises were old news to me. Having the mind of a not-child and all that extra time during my years in the Academy meant I'd drilled all of them into the ground. There wasn't much more I could do for my control while my reserves were still expanding.  
The main saving grace had been that the sharingan can take down taijutsu patterns and moves. Even then, he'd set me on them and I'd have them memorized in no time, leaving him with nothing else to do other than read while I ran through them on repeat - something I didn't think he minded much.  
It was odd to think I'd never considered that until now.  
"I'll have to ask him for some tracking training next time I see him," I settled on. "Though I get the feeling infiltration is probably more my speed."  
He hummed. "You did well, by the way," he said. "I thought I was going to be stuck explaining to the client why we couldn't fill the parameters of the mission entirely."  
"That would have been a fun conversation," I quipped.  
"Very," he replied dryly.  
"You really think I can make it in infiltration?" I asked. "Even if I ended up in ANBU?"  
He quirked an eyebrow. "Are you considering ANBU?"  
I have a noncommittal shrug. "Sort of."  
"If the only thing that's holding you back is thinking you're not strong enough physically, that's not what you ought to be worrying about. You can always get stronger," he told me. "It's mental strength that's make or break it in ANBU."  
I thought of asking him if he spoke from experience but decided against it. It was one of those taboo things you just didn't do, more out of respect than anything else - the level of anonymity and ANBU operative holds is up to their own discretion.  
"It's hard for me to say for certain," I said. "I don't know much about ANBU."  
It was true. Mentally, I certainly was more prepared than the average thirteen year old. My maturity was above my peers - having a nineteen year old consciousness shoved into the body of a baby did wonders for that kind of thing. Whether that meant I would ever be ready for the ANBU battlefield was up in the air.  
"Food for thought, then," was all he replied.  
.-.-.  
A grin broke over my face when we approached the main gates of Konoha. The familiarity and comfort that came with being home was enough to mostly quash the nerves pooling in my stomach.  
The trip through the gates was quick and painless. This time we dealt with a different set of chunin at the gates who were cranking through the people in the lines at breakneck pace. I let my senses open and monitored the influx of people ahead of us in line, silently relieved that I didn't sense anybody there who wasn't civilian. The chunin who checked our paperwork gave it a short once-over and handed all of it back with a short jerk of his head.  
Immediately I went to veer off in the direction of Shika's house, knowing he'd be able to get me fully up to date if I missed anything, but a hand fell on my shoulder, holding me steadfast on the road forward.  
I looked up at him with a frown. "What?"  
"We've got to go debrief before you run off," he said. "Just a short verbal one."  
"I thought you only did that if your mission had major issues."  
"I wish. Haven't you gone in for a debrief after all your missions?"  
"All of them except the last one because the invasion was still going on, but I've had major issues on all my other missions."  
He scratched the back of his neck with a sigh, not commenting further. Instead he went to reach into his pocket only for his hand to freeze midway there.  
Cigarettes. I still had his, sitting in the bottom of my…  
My eyes moved to the pack that he'd taken once I started moving on my own, my pack where his cigarettes were now well within his reach. He seemed to have made the same connection since before I could react he had the pack off his shoulder and was searching through it.  
"That's mine!" I protested, snatching at it.  
He moved it out of my reach, taking advantage of his superior reflexes. "It has something of mine in it."  
Fruitlessly I tried to grab it away from him but he easily kept it away from me while simultaneously seeking his cigarettes. He made a small noise of victory and his hand emerged with the small white box filled with his precious little piss sticks.  
That's right, folks - even in the shinobi world there's some seriously nasty shit in those things.  
He plucked one out of the box and put the end of it in his mouth, snapping his fingers together, sparks dancing off his fingertips to light the cigarette. I didn't even bother trying to take it from out of his mouth. That was a pointless battle if our previous exchange was any indication.  
"If we haven't done the briefing yet, is the mission really technically over?"  
He took a long drag from the cigarette before he smirked down at me. "The mission ended the second we walked through the gates," he said, smoke accompanying his words as they left his mouth and flying right into my face.  
I coughed, waving my hand in front of my nose. "Seriously?"  
"Lighten up princess." He clapped a hand on my back. "You'll be back to your castle in no time."  
I opened my mouth to say something when a familiar signature spiked at my senses.  
Ino.  
If anybody could give me an accurate update of the going-ons in the village, it was one Ino Yamanaka. My mouth snapped shut as my head instinctively turned in her direction, pausing. Just like that any chance I had of being able to focus on anything other than what the hell I missed seemed to fly out the window.  
"I'll be right back!" I cried, sprinting off before Maen had a chance to try and stop me.  
I heard a pained groan from behind me that I paid no mind to as my feet carried me forward towards the Yamanaka flower shop. It looked like it had been entirely repaired, though the stock inside the store was limited, only half of the shelves actually holding flowers. Through the back window of the shop I could see the ruined remnants of one of their greenhouses. Thankfully, the other two were still standing - I could only hope the one that was destroyed didn't house any of their medicinal herbs.  
Ino was sweeping away the inside of the shop, greeting anybody who passed by. She looked up as I approached and gave an enthusiastic wave, smiling widely.  
In the background Inoichi glanced up fractionally from what he was doing.  
"Kasumi!" she called. "You're back early!"  
I laughed. "Yeah, we finished quickly so we got back ahead of schedule." I turned towards Inochi. "Hi, Mr. Yamanaka."  
"Hello Kasumi," he said. "I hope you're doing well."  
"I could use a good shower and some fresh clothes but other than that I'm doing fine," I said, hoping that sounded natural despite the mess of nerves that were starting to pile up internally.  
Ino pinched her nose. "You could use a shower - you stink."  
"Oh, thanks," I snorted.  
A signature behind me was the only indication I had before my body moved on instinct, ducking beneath the hand was about to smack me upside the head. Inoichi looked up again, this time giving a smile to the man who was now standing behind me. Ino looked like she had stars in her eyes.  
"Good to see you're back, Maen," Inoichi said. "We were starting to get low on staff for the Intel division, what with so many of you being sent out for missions."  
"Good to be back," he replied.  
I slipped forward and threw my arm over Ino's shoulders. If I didn't do something soon she was going to start swooning.  
"If you'll excuse us - " I started but Maen grabbed hold of the collar of my shirt and hauled me back.  
"Oh, no. We have somewhere to be, princess," he said.  
Inoichi raised an eyebrow. "Whatever would that be?"  
"Mission debriefing," Maen answered. "This one here decided she could skip out on me."  
"I wasn't skipping out!" I cried, glaring at him. "I just wanted to have a quick chat with a friend."  
"You can chat later," he said. "When I'm not waiting on you."  
Inoichi stared at me accessing and I felt myself squirm beneath the scrutiny. His eyes were piercing, knowing, like he could read my mind without help from the infamous Yamanaka jutsus. He inclined his head and the expression on his face softened.  
"I'm sure a few minutes wouldn't hurt, would it?" he said, directing the comment at Maen. "I was going to find you later so I could fill you in on the goings-on of the division while you were out of the village anyways."  
Maen seemed to have an internal debate, his mouth tipping down. A second passed before the tension in his face eased. "Yeah, fine," he relented. "Just keep it quick."  
I didn't give him the chance to change his mind. I moved forward and grabbed Ino by the wrist, dragging her along behind me and into a more private part of the store. She was digging in her heels and craning her neck to get a better look at the Nara as I lead her away.  
"You told me he wasn't cute!" she squealed.  
"He's not."  
"Oh, come on. He's the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. You, Kasumi Himura, are a dirty liar."  
"Ino."  
"You can't for one second tell me that you honestly don't find him attractive."  
"Ino."  
"I mean, sure he's way older than us but older men are totally hot, anyways."  
"Ino."  
She blinked at me, snapping out of her daze and finally realizing that I hadn't just come here for a little chat. "What?"  
Rather than come right out with what I really wanted to know, I instead asked, "Any chance you've been by my house while I was gone, or seen my parents around the village at all?"  
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she gushed. "Here I was blabbering about some stupid boy and you were busy worrying about your parents, oh man I'm the worst. They're fine! I haven't been by your house at all because it's a bit of a ways from here, but they came by this morning to get flowers for the memorial stone they have set up in the village."  
A small smile pulled at my lips. "Thanks."  
"No worries."  
"Hey, uh… any chance you've seen either of my teammates around, as well?" I asked. "I don't trust Naruto to go this long without doing something stupid and I haven't actually seen Sasuke since the invasion."  
It was a long shot. Sasuke avoided Ino like the plague. Ino and Naruto only really interacted when Shika, Cho, and I were all there as well. However, I was more looking to hear her say she hadn't heard anything. She'd know the day it happened, in that I had no doubt, and she'd mention it to me if something like that had gone down when I was gone.  
She hummed, putting her hand on her chin. "Nope, haven't seen either of them, actually. They might be at the memorial tomorrow, though."  
I took in a deep breath, feeling my chest lighten. We hadn't missed the memorial. I still had a couple of days. "Memorial?" I inquired to keep the conversation moving normally, consciously holding the relief I felt out of my voice.  
Her expression dimmed. "I guess you haven't heard yet, then. The Hokage died during the invasion, they're having a memorial for him tomorrow morning. Any shinobi in the village are welcome to attend. All the jonin have been coming back today so that they can go, too."  
"Oh," I murmured, not feeling like explaining that Kiba had already told me.  
"At least you're back in time that you can go," she offered weakly.  
"Yeah," I said. I looked up and gave her a small smile. "I should probably get going before Maen comes back and kicks me all the way to the tower."  
She laughed and nodded.  
Maen and Inoichi were having a hushed conversation that abruptly halted as soon as the two of us were within earshot. The man looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. "Girl talk over?"  
I scowled at him but didn't bother correcting him. "We're done talking."  
"Good." He waved goodbye Inoichi.  
"Bye Ino, Mr. Yamanaka," I said. "And thanks."  
Her expression had brightened up some, though the smile she gave me was still lacking some of its usual brilliance. "Bye! I'll see you tomorrow."  
"Yeah, tomorrow."  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT  
.-.-.  
The trip up to the large tower was a quiet one.  
Whatever Maen had spoken to Inoichi about was keeping him occupied, his mouth set into a thin line, reminding me of the expressions I often saw when Shika and his father were locked into a particularly fierce shogi game. I left him alone, my eyes wandering around the village that only a short week ago was nearly decimated.  
Aside from the odd hole in a wall here or a crack in the ground there, a newcomer to the village might have never guessed what had gone on. The civilians were out in full force as well, milling around happily, chatting and going about their daily lives as if nothing had ever happened. It was oddly comforting, though not surprising - only the resilient could live in a shinobi village for exactly this reason.  
I shoved my hands into my pockets, tilting my head up to watch the sky as we walked towards the Hokage tower.  
After a short stint dealing with the poor, overwhelmed chunin running the front desks, we were led to one of the less populated wings of the tower and told to wait outside what I assumed was a conference room.  
"Do they really have time to do proper debriefings right now?" I asked, shifting so I was sitting cross-legged in the chair. "I mean, with all that's going on and all, they must have better things to do right now."  
"Probably not," he sighed, a wisp of smoke following the words.  
"Are you allowed to smoke in here?"  
"Probably not."  
I frowned at him irritably. "Then why are you doing it?"  
"I want to."  
"Are you sure you're an adult?" I threw at him.  
"It's because I'm adult that I can do what I want to."  
As much as I'd have loved to beg to differ to with that statement I reeled in my tongue, choosing to be the bigger person. One of us had to be.  
To distract myself from the stench of cigarette smoke that was now hanging in the air I opened up my senses to take a peek at what was going on inside the room. Except, I felt nothing from inside the room, despite the fact that we had been told there was a debriefing going on in there that we were waiting to finish before we could do our own.  
Curiously, I leant forward, my elbows resting on my knees and my hands hanging down, trying to hone my senses further. Yet there was nothing. There was nothing alive in the room, no hints of chakra hanging in the air, like a black hole. Further down the wing there was another blank space, though the rest of the wing seemed to be perfectly alive. The best way to describe it was jarring.  
When the answer hit me I let out an audible groan, throwing myself back against the seat.  
"Problem?" Maen asked, the cigarette between his lips bobbing with the words.  
"Privacy seals," I murmured aloud. "Of course."  
"What about them?"  
I gestured to the room in front of us. "There's nothing there. Like… empty, I guess. I couldn't figure out why, and it hit me. Privacy seals."  
"All debriefing rooms come equipped with them," he said. There was a pause. "What do you mean, empty?"  
I frowned. "Just that. There's no chakra in the room, at all. It's kind of like seeing a blank piece of paper when you're expecting a page full of colour."  
He leant back too, mulling over my words.  
It was times like these that made me realize that my bloodlimit was in so many ways just as foreign to me as it was to others.  
A few minutes later the door in front of us opened. Maen stood, walking forward, not bothering to wait for the previous occupants to leave. I followed suit and hopped out of the seat, striding forward through the doorway.  
Two things immediately stood out to me.  
First, while there was only one person visible to us, sitting behind her desk with her hand steepled in front of her, there were two others ghosting on either side of her, ANBU most likely, their presence masked by a genjutsu that didn't trick my senses.  
The second was that the woman was a figure who I knew of but hadn't met yet in person: Koharu Utatane.  
A chill ran up my spine because what the hell was she doing wasting her time with the debriefing of a C-rank mission. Something had felt off the entire mission, a sensation I had vehemently ignored the entire time because I figured it was nothing. Lack of sleep, maybe. Homesickness. Nerves about what was going to happen. A thing I couldn't put a name to but was certainly there.  
I chanced a look at Maen whose expression was neutral.  
Fantastic.  
The woman formed a quick seal with her hands and I felt my senses to the outside world get abruptly severed.  
"Alright," she said, giving a brief nod to the man beside me. "Report?"  
His eyes flashed over to me before he said, "She performed well."  
"As expected, then."  
"Yes," he answered. "Her lack of experience showed but that won't be any problem, if anything it'll help because it means she hasn't had a chance to develop any major bad habits."  
"Very good," she said primly. "Anything you personally need to report?"  
"No, ma'am. The activity in the city had nothing to do with any of the forces that attacked us, it was only a false lead as suspected."  
"Well at least some things are going right," she muttered sourly.  
My mouth opened and then closed again with an audible click because what? I was entirely lost, the conversation going on in front of me resembling code, going entirely over my head except for the fact that I was sure I had been mentioned in it. I swore I felt one of the signatures behind her shift in amusement at my reaction.  
Koharu turned and for the first time actually addressed me. "There is much that must be explained I suppose."  
"That would be appreciated."  
A hand reached up and smacked me upside the head. "A little respect would be appreciated, princess."  
Rather than get offended at my words the woman seemed only amused, a thin eyebrow being quirked and a hint of a smile ghosting her lips. "So her files were right about that much," the woman mused.  
"Sadly."  
"I'm certain you will manage her just fine," she said dismissively. "You've done well with her type in the past, haven't you?"  
The man scoffed. "Is that why you picked me?"  
"Do your files lie?"  
"Not likely," he said, resignation in his voice.  
The woman smiled again, though this time it held a hint of smugness. "I thought so."  
"Uhm, sorry. What's going on?" I injected, raising my hand a little, not eager to get smacked again. "Still very confused."  
She returned her gaze back to me. Her eyes, a dark brown, were simultaneously hard as steel and filled with the tinge of sadness that reminded me that she had lost more than just her Hokage when Hiruzen died. In an instant the emotion was gone and she gave a short nod.  
"Right, we are on a schedule after all," she said. "I suppose we'll start with the mission."  
"Do you… uh… want me to give you a debriefing?" I offered lamely.  
She waved a hand. "No, that will not be necessary. The mission itself was intended more as a test than anything else, the details are irrelevant at the moment."  
"A test?" I asked quietly, my mind whirling.  
"Yes. Given your lack of field experience, it was necessary to test you before offering you a position as an ANBU specialist."  
With those words, a hell of a lot slotted into place.  
All the prodding about my future and whether I knew what I wanted to do.  
The ANBU talk.  
Forcing me to think through the mission and form the plans myself rather than telling me what to do.  
Having me perform the infiltration on my own.  
The entire time, Maen had been feeling me out, trying to figure out what the extent of my field abilities were and whether there was even a chance I would join ANBU. In retrospect it was painfully obvious that that had been what was happening. Now I felt really, really stupid for having missed it.  
"Ah," I managed, unsure of what else to say.  
Recognizing that she wasn't going to get much more out of me, Koharu explained, "During the invasion, we lost a sizable amount of our ANBU forces. They were used in the forest to thin out the worst of the forces during the invasion, and we lost far more of our specialists than we could have anticipated. During the invasion some of our shinobi in the arena took notice of your abilities, reporting it to the village administration for potential field promotion. When your file was brought to our attention we recognized that you had the makings for a potential infiltration specialist or tracking specialist, both of whom were some of our hardest hit positions among ANBU."  
"You thinking of going into infiltration?"  
"Well, if you're a sensor you could always try for the Tracking and Retrieval Division."  
"Aren't I too young?" I inquired, the first tangible protests to enter my mind. "And too low of a rank?"  
"Young, yes, but not too young. There is no true age requirement for entry into ANBU and the same can be said for rank. In fact, lower ranks are typically preferred - they offer a higher level of anonymity. Though you are not wrong that genin is typically lower of a rank than we'd like. Because of this, you will be given a field promotion to chunin should you choose to accept the position in ANBU."  
"Okay," I said slowly, closing my eyes and forcing myself to gather my thoughts. "What does… what does all of this entail?"  
"The first six months of your time with ANBU will be spent in training. You will be taught the regulations of the organization and be given a mentor in both of your specializations to help build on the potential that you have in both of the fields. During these six months you will take up some of the lower level ANBU missions for your specialization and be placed on the patrol roster. Should the end of the six month period come and you are not showing to be reaching the level you are needed to be at you will be removed from the organization."  
I ran my hand over my face, trying to absorb all of the information being thrown at me. "What happens if I say no?"  
"Then you say no and that's that," she said.  
"No promotion?"  
"No," she simply said. "You are not ready."  
I forced myself not to flinch at the words. "Then why offer me one now?"  
"As I said, even though your missions would be infrequent, they would still happen, and it is uncommon that genin are sent out on missions that aren't with their team so long as it's still together. It would bring about questions that need not be asked. Though I will be honest with you, I don't think you are ready for ANBU or chunin," she said truthfully. "While the reports of your leadership in the mission you were assigned during the invasion are impressive, they still show some very real issues that you have. When an ambush was sent after your squad, you offered yourself to go and repel it, which took you away from the majority of the team, a poor choice as not only the team leader but the only member of the squad with medical knowledge and abilities. After splitting from your team, you decided to heal what were superficial wounds, despite the fact that your teammates were in the midst of tracking the enemy. Because you made this choice you could have potentially cost Kiba Inuzuka his life as rather than being there to help with the fight you were still trying to catch up. While your choice to rush ahead of your team and heal Kiba Inuzuka saved his life, it is still a very bad choice as, again, you are separating from your team. All of these boil down to your lack of experience. You have the combat capabilities of a chunin, certainly, but nothing of the experience needed to lead a team. Your time with ANBU will do well to aid with these and it is unlikely you will be sent out to lead a team in the immediate future, which is why I can consent to you gaining a promotion on that condition alone."  
She was right.  
She was so right that it hurt.  
Experience was one thing that I didn't have. I had hoped that I'd be chosen for a promotion to chunin once Tsunade became Hokage, even had a tentative confidence that it could happen. Now, though… well that confidence had curled up into a ball and died in the corner of my mind.  
In the last few days I had really started considering my future. I knew full well that once Naruto and Sasuke left if I was still a genin I'd be shoved into the genin corps. You had to be at least chunin to join any of the divisions around the village, after all. I knew that no matter what, I would get to chunin eventually. Sakura did. What I would do as a genin until then was what I was concerned about. Genin corps almost never went on missions above D-rank. They did office work and errands.  
I bit my lip so hard that a sharp metallic taste danced on the edge of my tongue.  
"How long do I have to think about it?" I finally asked.  
"While I'd love to give you as long as you'd like, we are on a tight schedule," she told me. "You have until the end of the night. Should you refuse, the spot will be filled."  
"The end of the night," I echoed numbly.  
"Indeed."  
"Okay."  
"Very good. If that is all, you are dismissed. I expect to see a written report within the next three days."  
.-.-.  
I found myself sitting on top of the Hokage monument for hours, staring down at the village as my mind churned in thought. As badly as I wanted to see mama and papa, they'd know something was wrong the second they saw me and I didn't have it in me to try explaining this.  
ANBU.  
Of all things.  
When I said I didn't think it would come up for at least a few years, I had meant it. For it to come up now of all times was throwing me for a loop. Part of me was tempted to accept purely for the chance at getting the promotion to chunin, as ashamed as I felt for even having the thought. Koharu's words had now really made me doubt whether or not I was likely to get a promotion out of these chunin exams.  
Shikamaru got his promotion based on the fact that he only lost his fight in the finals due to sheer laziness. I may have won my fight, but I knew, looking back, I hadn't shown any kind of mindblowing strategical prowess. I brute-forced my way through my fights, preliminary round included. The only thing I'd done that could really attest to my intelligence during the exams was the very first one, though whether or not that would count for anything was up in the air.  
If everything went off as I knew it would, and there was so far no indication that it wouldn't, then I was going to be on my own soon. I'd be shoved into genin corps and then what? Wait around for six months until the next chunin exam? During this time, Sakura had had Tsunade to keep her occupied. I knew Kakashi-sensei wouldn't refuse to train with me if I ever asked, but it was as Maen had said - aside from tracking, there wasn't much for him to teach me. Eventually he'd run of out kata to show me and then where would I be. The only other person who could further my taijutsu was Guy and the thought of training with him brought genuine tears to my eyes.  
ANBU was something to do. It was a path for me to take. Six months of training was six months that I'd still be given a chance to learn. Hell, maybe I'd even be able to further decipher the mystery that was my bloodlimit.  
The question wasn't whether or not I was capable of doing the ANBU missions. Physically, I'd be trained up to be capable of it. Mentally, I was confident that I'd learn to manage, though I knew that I wasn't likely to come out unscathed. I was a shinobi. We never made it out of this career without a few mental scars to show for it. It was something I had always been prepared for even if I had never really imagined myself in ANBU.  
The scent of cigarette smoke hit my nose and I sighed. "What do you want, Maen?"  
"So hostile, princess," he said and sat down beside me. "Can't I just come here to admire the view of the village for myself?"  
"No."  
"It is a public space."  
"Tough shit."  
He took a drag of the cigarette, heaving out a breath. "I did try and give you some hints, you know. A lot of them actually."  
"I know you did, which is why I'm annoyed," I answered, kicking my heel against the edge of third's head. I tilted my head back and watched the clouds pass, my mouth twisted into a frown. "ANBU? Really?"  
"Really."  
"Why me, though?" I asked. "She said it herself, she doesn't think I'm ready."  
"ANBU took a significant hit during the invasion. Percentage wise, it was the hardest hit rank out of the entire village. As of right now, there's only two ANBU level infiltrationists and three ANBU level trackers left in the village."  
Oh, man.  
That was bad.  
"Why were they hit so hard?"  
"Everybody was forced onto the front lines, even the specialists who aren't exactly meant for it. ANBU were used as a buffer."  
"That seems like poor strategy."  
He shrugged. "Even so, it saved more lives than it cost."  
I let myself fall backwards, leaving my legs dangling over the edge. "What's it really like?" I asked quietly. "Don't try and pull some kind of 'its classified' bullshit on me either."  
He let out a snort. I almost thought he wasn't going to answer me before he spoke again. "It's probably worse than you can imagine. You'll have to do things you'll lose sleep over, things you would never imagine you would have to do."  
"You make such a convincing case."  
He shrugged. "It's not my job to convince you to join. That has to be a choice you make on your own."  
"What a decision it is," I murmured.  
"It's not all bad," he told me.  
"Oh, really."  
"Your squad becomes your family, princess," he said. "You'll be with the same squad for at least the first six months. Even after that, squads are only broken up every five to six months. They're people you'll fight with in enemy territory, through hell and back. You'll save their lives and they'll save yours. You end up forming a bond with your fellow ANBU members, something unlike anything you'll ever know among regular shinobi teams."  
"You speak from experience?"  
He chuckled. "Classified."  
"Oh, come on!"  
"It's the truth."  
"Whatever."  
His ponytail swished behind him as he shook his head. "It really is. All the stories I have are classified. That's the thing about ANBU - anything you do is going to be classified. My old squad captain always called us the unsung heroes of Konoha. Feared by the masses even though we do the most to keep them safe."  
It was true. ANBU were, to the civilians at least, something akin to the boogeyman. In their mind, they were given the scariest, darkest jobs, the most powerful shinobi in the village. It wasn't wrong, but it also wasn't entirely right, as far as I was concerned. Regardless, the rank of ANBU brought respect, even if being a part of it wasn't the kind of thing you really paraded around.  
"Unsung heroes, huh?"  
"ANBU do what they do so nobody else has to, and never tell a soul about it. Most ANBU end up in a permanent MIA list, dying somewhere that their bodies are irretrievable."  
"Again, convincing case."  
He just shrugged. "You deserve to know what you're getting into. I'm not here to make it sound glamorous because it isn't."  
The thing was: I didn't want to say no.  
It forced me to stop thinking of this life as being part of a story. I spent so much of my time looking forward, using the knowledge that I already had to try and plan my life, that I now realized I was forgetting that I was alive and this was my new life. This was a real living, breathing world, and I was a part of it. More than that, I was a shinobi of Konohagakure and if I could best serve my village as a member of ANBU, wasn't it my duty to do that?  
Yes, it would still be a place for me to take once I was the last one of my team left behind. Maen's words made me remember it was more than just something for me to do to pass the time until Naruto returned from his training. ANBU was the force in the shadows that kept the village safe when nobody else could.  
I wanted to keep my family safe.  
I wanted to keep my village safe.  
All because they were just that - my village, my family.  
If I had to brave the dark world that ANBU pushed me into then so be it, I'd do it gladly until the day I died because I knew that I could. For all I knew it could be what would lead me to a brighter future than the one intended for this world.  
Recognizing that, realistically, I had already made up my mind, I lifted myself up off the ground and brushed off my clothes. Maen twisted his upper body to look over at me.  
"I'm ready," I said firmly.  
"You sure about this?"  
"I hope so."  
He nodded his head. "Alright. Let's go, she'll want me there anyways."  
"Why you?"  
He gave me a smirk. "I'll be your squad captain for the next six months."  
.-.-.  
Koharu looked like she hadn't moved a muscle since we left. Her eyes bore into mine as she regarded me standing in front of her, shoulders set in determination, a far cry from the girl who was in here earlier that had been taken completely off guard.  
She tilted her head towards Maen and said, "Yes, you will have plenty of fun with this one."  
"I am well aware."  
"I'm sure if you're adamant enough, the new Hokage would be willing to hear your out and switch her to another squad."  
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I wouldn't wish a fate like this on anybody."  
I glared at him though he seemed entirely unfazed.  
She hummed and turned back towards me. "Yes, well, if your decision is final then until a new Hokage is instated you will defer to Maen for all matters regarding ANBU. I will warn you as well, should the new Hokage deem you unworthy they will have the power to immediately kick you out of the organization."  
The mood in the room returned to its somewhat sombre state. I nodded at her words and said, "I understand."  
Her thin lips formed something of a smile. "Very good," she said. "An operative will bring you to the meeting place later on in the night."  
She waved her hand behind her and one of the signatures shadowing her materialized in front of us with a mask and uniform that I instantly recognized.  
The chest guard was the typical white, as were the arm guards, and the jet black leggings finished off the look. The main attention grabber in the ensemble was the mask that sat on the very top of the pile. The majority of it was white as snow, a small set of ears poking up off the top. Fine red stripes lined the eyes of the mask, along with two thicker ones framing the jaw and a final one marking the mouth of the animal. A small black nose dotted the middle of it, paired with a thick triangular shaped black marking on the forehead of the mask.  
It was a face so utterly familiar to me that I instantly recognized what the mask was supposed to represent.  
The ANBU operative handed the pile to Maen, who gave him a short nod and a genuine smile. Friend, maybe.  
"You end up forming a bond with your fellow ANBU members, something unlike anything you'll ever know among regular shinobi teams."  
Maen turned to me and the edge of his smile grew crooked, more of a smirk. He held out the pile to me and simply said, "Welcome to the club, ANBU Fox."  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE  
.-.-.  
Following the meeting with Koharu, I was carted to another floor to receive my chunin vest. I had been expecting a few days wait before I would be given it but was informed that they had enough around that at least one of them should fit. As soon as I was led out of the meeting room Maen departed, saying something about business he needed to deal with. That was fine. I got the feeling I was going to get more than enough quality time with him in the future.  
It took a few minutes for them to locate one that would only require minor alterations - I had already been warned that the ANBU uniform would definitely need a bit of tweaking, what was another vest to add to the pile? Silently, I was thankful that I had learnt how to sew in the kunoichi classes.  
After doing a bit of filing a vest was held out to me that I took with a small smile. They didn't say what the papers were for, just that they were very important and I knew better than to question it any further - I had learnt not to mess with desk chunin pretty early on thanks in part to Kakashi-sensei.  
Finally I was able to go home. On my way out of the tower I slipped the chunin vest in along with my ANBU uniform. My feet stopped on their own as I simply found myself staring at the mask, not quite believing it was mine yet.  
When I walked out the village gates a few days ago, this was not how I expected the mission to end.  
Rather than bother with walking I hopped up onto the roof of the nearest building and took the high road home. By this point it was only the late afternoon. People were out in the markets, some more bundled up than others. The air had taken on a chill as the day wore on, more in line with what was expected of the weather this time of the year. I wasn't too bothered by it - as long as it didn't start snowing everything would be fine by me.  
My heart dropped when I got home and realized that the house was empty. It hit me just how much I had missed mama and papa while I was gone as I opened the door and found myself looking at a dark living room, devoid of the two familiar signatures. I let my pack fall to the ground in the entryway, shutting the door behind me as an afterthought.  
"Must be at the restaurant," I murmured to myself. What with everything that happened, they'd be ridiculously busy over the next couple of weeks trying to get everything within the restaurant back in order.  
Besides, it's not like they would have been expecting me to be home yet. Given that I'd told Shika I'd be home in four or five days, there was a good chance that they'd been informed of that through the grapevine. The Naras had always made a surprising effort to help ease the struggle mama and papa experienced being the civilian parents of a shinobi child. Yoshino and mama got along well, and while Shikaku and papa didn't have much in common, papa was always willing to let himself get destroyed in shogi by the former when they ran out of 'dad things' to talk about.  
I walked into the kitchen and grabbed some of the leftovers out of the fridge. After living off supplement bars for the last three days it was nice to get an actual meal, especially mama's cooking. I flipped on the oven and let that heat up while I took a quick shower. Five minutes was all it took to clean myself of the post-mission grit that I was slowly becoming accustomed to. I felt exponentially better when I was finished and I slipped into a casual set of clean clothes before making my way back downstairs, my mood lifted some.  
My eyes flicked over to the clock, sighing that it was nearly four in the afternoon. While I did want to go and see how everybody else was doing, I also didn't feel like having to make up some kind of excuse when it was time for me to go to the meeting. Besides, it's not like I didn't have stuff that I needed to get done at home. My room was a complete disaster from the mess I had made rushing to get ready for the mission and I needed to clean my pack out to keep it from reeking too badly. Unenjoyable stuff to do, certainly, but still stuff that I had to do.  
I slid the food into the oven and flipped on the tv in the living room, letting myself sink into the couch while I waited for the timer. As the drone of the tv washed over me I felt my muscles actually begin to relax for the first time since before the invasion.  
It was odd to think that it hadn't even been a week since the invasion. The memories of it felt oddly distant, like it had been five years since they occurred rather than five days. Five days since I killed fifteen people.  
I forced myself to drop that train of thought there. Those were dark thoughts I was better off not having, not then.  
The show on tv was some dumb drama but it served to keep me entertained until the timer for the oven went off and my dinner was ready. Even with the tv on, the emptiness of the house felt stifling. I was tempted to drop by the restaurant just to see how things were over there but decided against it, quickly eating my dinner and heading upstairs to get a start on things.  
I'd get to see them. I'd waited this long, I could keep it up for a bit longer.  
The menial cleaning tasks did their job, occupying my mind for a few hours while I waited. By the time I heard a knock on my window I'd tidied up my room, bathroom, mission pack, and gotten a start on my laundry.  
I looked up from the book on my lap, eyes moving to the source of the noise.  
A woman with long brown hair and a black and white ANBU mask was perched Spiderman-style on one of the tree branches outside. I stood up, letting the book fall off my lap and walked over to the window, lifting it upwards.  
"I suppose you're my escort?"  
"Indeed," she answered, voice muffled slightly by the mask.  
"Do I need to bring anything with me?"  
"No."  
She was the quiet type, then. Whatever.  
"Alright," I said, slipping out the window and firmly shutting it behind me. "Lead on."  
.-.-.  
The ANBU headquarters were hidden in the forest near the Hokage tower. The entire thing had to be decked out in privacy seals as when I glanced upon it with my chakra senses I couldn't discern anything but a dead space in amidst the lively chakra of the forest.  
Badger didn't spare me another glance the entire run over, silently leading me forward and through security. I did my best to take in as much of the halls that I could as she took me through them but it was certainly a maze, all plain concrete walls with plain black doors. The only thing I had to go on were the small numbers plastered on each door. Adding that with the feeling of being surrounded by almost sheer nothing the headquarters had something of an oppressive feeling that I dearly hoped I would get used to.  
Eventually we came to a stop.  
"This one, here," she said. She didn't wait for a reply before she turned on her heel and walked in the other direction.  
Awesome.  
I stared at the door for a solid minute before I turned the handle and let it swing forward.  
There were a grand total of seven other people in the room, all of whom went silent as I opened the door.  
Maen was a little off to my left, at the head of the table. To his left sat Genma Shiranui, Aoba Yamashiro, and Hayate Gekko. On the right of him there were three people whom I didn't immediately recognize: a woman in her early twenties; another woman, this time looking like she was in her early thirties; a young guy that couldn't have been older than eighteen.  
"Ah, princess," Maen said. "Good of you to join us."  
Aoba snorted at the nickname that magically transformed itself into a cough at my withering glare.  
Genma grinned, the senbon between his lips flicking upwards with the movement. "I like her."  
I nodded uneasily and went to take the last remaining seat on the far end of the table.  
Frankly, I didn't know what the hell to make of this.  
"Introductions?" Genma asked.  
"Probably a good way to start," Maen sighed. "I'll go first, I suppose. Maen Nara, or as you'll be calling me, Owl. I'm your squad captain for the next six months."  
"Genma Shiranui and Panther," the man said, raising his hand up lazily. "I'm the mid-range fighter on the main squad."  
"Aoba Yamashiro and Crow," he said with a hint of a smirk. "Long-range combat specialist."  
Hayate opened his mouth to speak and a short cough came out. He cleared his throat some and rasped, "Hayate Gekko and Viper. I will be the close range combat specialist on the main squad."  
It was hard not to just stare at the people sitting across from me at the table. It occurred to me that I hadn't actually known what to expect when I came here. Sure, I knew Maen would be my captain, but I hadn't even given much of a thought to who else might be on the squad. Though even if I had I don't think I would have imagined it'd look like this.  
"Kasumi Himura and Fox," I finally said. "Infiltration and tracking specialist."  
"Wait, they gave a thirteen year old genin a double specialization?" Aoba asked incredulously.  
My first reaction was to bristle in indignation. "Chunin, not genin," I corrected, despite the fact that I didn't feel like I'd really even earned the promotion.  
Genma gave me a bit of a look before he said, "Himura… you're Kakashi's kunoichi, aren't you?"  
I didn't even bother asking how he managed to guess. "Yeah."  
"Kakashi's - oh… oh Kami, that's underhanded, even for Tiger," Aoba said, shaking his head.  
I blinked. "What do you mean by that?"  
Maen shot the two men a dirty look before he injected, "Doesn't matter. Keep things moving, we have a lot to discuss and not a lot of time to discuss it."  
Forcefully I bit back any protests I felt rising in my throat - even I could recognize that this wasn't the time nor the place to try and argue. Instead I settled for scowling and leaning back in my chair, arms crossed over my chest.  
"Sadao Minami and Deer," the guy said softly, eyes briefly flashing upwards before moving back down to the table. "Assassination specialist."  
The woman beside him raised an eyebrow and simply said, "Kiyoko Moto, Rabbit. I'll be the squad's medic."  
"Emi Hayashi and Mink," the girl said and the tips of her lips raised into a sly smile. "Seduction specialist."  
Genma returned the smile and said, "It'll be a pleasure working with you."  
Aoba smacked him upside the head. "Don't make this weird."  
"Alright, cut it out kiddies," Maen sighed. "Now that we've had fun going around in a circle let's get down to business."  
Genma and Emi both kept sizing each other up. It was… interesting. While on the outside, both were showing the posture of sexual interest, they were doing it in two entirely different ways. Genma had one shoulder hedged forward, the other securely leaning on the back of the chair - the mannerisms of casual interest, a cocky 'I know I can have you if I want' confidence. Emi's was far more blatant, leaning her elbows forward on the table in a way that left a significant portion of her cleavage visible. It was like watching an amateur flirt with a seasoned professional.  
"With pleasure," Emi purred.  
Kiyoko looked between the two of them and asked, "Can you two please stop eye fucking each other?"  
"Agreed," I said.  
Maen pinched the bridge of his nose. "Seriously, enough."  
Genma abruptly sat up and his expression turned analytical as he said, "Quit being so obvious. If you want to get anywhere as a female seduction specialist you have to learn to not reply on your boobs. A lot of the jobs you take are in the higher circles of the social hierarchy, and let me tell you right now nobleman need a lot more than just a nice rack to get into bed."  
The girl blinked, taken off guard by the comment. "What - I - huh?" she sputtered.  
"You could have waited for me to explain," Maen said dryly.  
Genma shrugged. "No use wasting a good learning opportunity."  
"I think we all would have been better off without that," Aoba said.  
"Definitely," Kiyoko agreed, scrunching her nose up at them. "This is a conference room not a hotel room."  
"Please," Genma said. "I don't screw people in hotel rooms. I have class."  
"You do not," Kiyoko scoffed.  
"Well, you didn't seem to care a few weeks ago," Genma said, giving his eyebrows a suggestive wiggle.  
Kiyoko's shoulders tightened. Sadao gave a small gasp while Emi let out a dainty little laugh. There was a solid thud as Hayate kicked Genma beneath the table, making the other man yelped.  
"That was low, man," Aoba said.  
On the other side of the table, our captain looked like he was starting to get severely annoyed with our group. He had cast his eyes upwards, silently mouthing the words as he counted down from ten.  
"Can we please stop derailing the conversation?" the Nara finally asked, his tone making it clear that this was more an order than a request. "I'd like to get through this in a relatively normal amount of time."  
"That would be appreciated," Hayate said with a nod.  
The mood around the table settled some, though Kiyoko continued to shoot Genma dark looks that the man was pointedly avoiding.  
"Good. For the time of your training, Aoba, Genma, and I will be serving as your respective mentors," Maen explained. "Kasumi, I'll be your infiltration mentor."  
In the back of my mind I wondered exactly which god I'd pissed off as I gave a resigned sigh.  
"Uhm, question," Sadao asked. "But I thought specialists were going to be mentoring us?"  
"Technically most people start as specialists," Aoba said. "Hayate happens to be a bit of an exception given we already know he's combat capable for ANBU. Maen, Genman, and I all started as specialists otherwise. Specialist positions are typically the least dangerous to the whole squad while a newbie is being seasoned."  
"What he means is that specialists see the least amount of combat missions," Genma interjected. "And if you do, you'll probably only kill yourself when you mess up rather than the whole squad."  
"Isn't that reassuring," I muttered.  
"What about you?" Emi asked, turning towards Kiyoko.  
"Medics aren't required to start with a specialization," she said shortly. "We're just tapped straight from the field training program."  
There was a pregnant pause before Genma said, "As you probably figured out, I'll be your seduction mentor, Emi."  
Aoba held up his hand and gave a short wave. "I'll be your assassination mentor, Sadao."  
"So then who…" I began but my voice died off.  
My tracking mentor.  
I thought back to what Maen had said, about Kakashi-sensei being one of the best trackers in the village. Once upon a time, Kakashi-sensei had been ANBU. If what Aoba said about everybody starting off as a specialist was true, it didn't take many leaps to imagine he had been a tracking specialist, and probably one of the best that they'd ever had.  
"I think she figured it out," Kiyoko said. Her expression was one of vague amusement.  
"That's… what if he won't teach me?" I asked, well aware that they'd understand what I was talking about.  
"He will," Maen said honestly. "Tiger wouldn't set it up like this if she wasn't wholly confident he'll do it."  
"One thing you'll learn very quickly is that Tiger always gets her way," Aoba added.  
"Tiger?" Emi asked.  
"She's the head of ANBU. Aside from the Hokage, there has to be somebody controlling the day-to-day operations of ANBU," Maen answered. "You'll meet her when she wants to meet you."  
Kiyoko rolled her eyes. "You all make her seem like some kind of terrifying monster."  
Genma's eyes rose all the way up. "Are you trying to tell me she's not?" he inquired. "Come on, you were on her squad for a year straight!"  
"And she was the best squad captain I've ever had," Kiyoko said. She looked over at Maen. "No offense."  
"None taken."  
"You don't get to live through twenty years of ANBU without being terrifying," Aoba muttered. "That woman scares me shitless."  
"I want to meet her," I said, unable to hide the awe in my voice.  
Whoever this woman was she was a force to be reckoned with. It was one thing to be a kunoichi, a whole other to be a kunoichi that leads the Konoha black ops and strikes fear into the hearts of her operatives.  
Even without meeting her I found myself having a ton of respect for her.  
"You will eventually," Maen said. "Everybody does."  
"And on that day, I suggest you pray. A lot."  
There was a short beat of silence before Maen spoke again, "Continuing on, you'll all be placed in the patrol roster by the end of the week. You have until then to settle into the apartments you're being provided with - "  
I held my hands up in a t-shape. "Time out. Apartments?"  
Genma gave a snort. "Nobody told her?"  
"Told me what?"  
"When you join ANBU, you're expected to move into ANBU approved apartment complexes," Maen answered. "The accommodations are free while you're still in training as the amount of missions you're able to perform goes down drastically."  
"It's a security thing," Kiyoko said. "The apartments are close to both the HQ and Hokage tower in case of emergencies."  
Oh Kami. "That would have been nice to know before I signed up," I said sourly.  
How the hell was I going to explain that to mama and papa? How the hell was I going to manage living on my own? I hadn't lived on my own since my name wasn't Kasumi.  
I had grown used to reaching out and grasping onto mama and papa's signatures when I woke up from a bad nightmare. When I got home from training and they were there in the kitchen making dinner, or sitting in the living room watching tv together, it was calming. Having mama fuss over my clothes when I ruined them was a steady factor in my life. I knew that if Naruto didn't look like he'd eaten a real meal in a few days I could bring him home with me for dinner.  
I didn't want to move out, not yet.  
"Sorry, princess, but there's no budging on that one," Maen said. "Rules are rules. The only ones who get to sneak out of there are clan members."  
"Right," I murmured. "Sure."  
"Ah c'mon, it's not that bad," Genma said. "Just think of it this way - you get to have me as a neighbor."  
I groaned. "Is that supposed to help?"  
"She's right, if anything that's a deterrent," Kiyoko said.  
Hayate cleared his throat, effectively shutting down the argument before it could begin.  
"You'll be provided with your new addresses as soon as they're assigned to you via messenger hawk," Maen said, taking up the opportunity to keep going before anybody else could take it from him. "That should be within the next day or two. I suggest you act on it as soon as you get it."  
I just frowned, trying to figure out how exactly I was going to talk mama and papa into this one.  
Hey, guess what? I got a promotion, and I'm going to be moving out!  
They were going to be absolutely thrilled.  
"Training starts in two days," Maen said, speaking again and pulling me from my thoughts. "Your meeting times are between you and your mentor as long as they get accomplished. Aside from typical training, it's assumed that you'll keep up with your own typical combat training."  
Kiyoko raised a hand. "Aside from that, I expect to be meeting with all of you within the next week to get a better idea of your health. I like to know what I'm working with when I join a new squad."  
"How do we contact each other outside of here?" Emi asked. "Isn't it a bit obvious if we're all of a sudden hanging around with people we've never even spoken to before?"  
Maen smirked. "One of the upsides of everybody living within the same complex is that it's fairly easy to meet without raising a ton of eyebrows. It's a very private section of the village - most people just assume its a shinobi building, so civilians stay away. As far as I'm aware ANBU's been housing its operatives in the area for nearly thirty years."  
"Oh, alright."  
"I think I just about covered everything. Any questions?" Maen asked. When there was silence around the table he nodded. "Good. Kiyoko will lead you to get your tattoos and after that you're dismissed for the night."  
.-.-.  
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, marvelling at the swirling design that now adorned the top part of my right arm. A bit of medical chakra had healed it as soon as it'd been branded into my shoulder, ensuring it'd stay there and that it wouldn't keep me from training tomorrow. Not that I planned to anyways.  
Mama and papa were still gone by the time got home. The sun had long since set, leaving me alone in the dark house. Well, I was going to have to get used to it - pretty soon, being alone in my house would be my new normal. Maen later had explained that since ANBU typically took on older members, moving out wasn't normally the kind of thing that needed to be discussed early on.  
Absolutely fantastic.  
Up in my room I heard the front door open and felt the two familiar signatures enter the living room. There was a bit of idle chatter before they seemed to notice my shoes in the doorway.  
"Sweetheart?" mama's voice called.  
I thundered down the stairs, straight into papa's arms. He laughed, swinging me around the room. "How's my little ninja?"  
"Tired," I murmured, my voice muffled by his shirt. "Dumb mission."  
Mama moved over to us and added herself to the hug. "Oh yeah?"  
"Uh huh."  
"We didn't think you'd be home this soon," papa admitted. "Shikaku told us you'd probably be gone for a week."  
He overshot on purpose, then. Gave me a bit of wiggle room so they didn't freak out and think it's the Land of Waves all over again. Mama released me from the parental sandwich but I kept my arms around papa's waist, following him into the kitchen.  
"We finished early," I explained. "It was easier than we expected."  
"I like to hear that!" mama said. "Did you get dinner baby?"  
"I had some of the leftovers," I answered.  
Mama set a bag on the counter, presumably food from the restaurant. "More for us, then."  
"How's everything at the restaurant?" I asked.  
"Oh, fine," papa said. "Hectic but everybody's settling back into a schedule. The building was fixed up a couple days ago, the same day we got back to the house. We were even able to half-open the kitchen today and the place was absolutely packed."  
"Well that's good."  
Papa sat down at the table and I pulled up a chair beside him. Mama doled out food from the take-out box for the two of them and came to sit with us as well. I told them what happened on the mission as they ate, only having to leave out the odd detail left out. Most importantly, they didn't ask what I was doing during the invasion and I didn't offer up any information.  
Gut instincts were telling me they at least suspected something happened but were satisfied to leave it given that I'd come out of it alright. That or they'd gotten information from other sources.  
Eventually we lapsed into silence. I stared down at the table, mulling over how I was going to approach the topic of my promotion. There wasn't any time for me to try and dance around the topic - I had, at most, a week to get prepared to move out. The apartments apparently came fully furnished, so that was one less thing to worry about, but that did nothing to help me with explaining it to mama and papa.  
Money wasn't an issue. Without the worry of rent, I had enough in the bank from my last few missions and the ones that I knew I'd still be able to go on that I was financially comfortable. It was more the idea of learning to function as an independent being again that I was fretting over.  
"Baby?" mama asked hesitantly. She traded a look with papa. "What's wrong?"  
Ah shit.  
I frowned, wringing my hands in my lap. "There's something else I need to tell you."  
"Is everything alright?"  
"Good news bad news."  
They locked eyes again before papa said, "Good news."  
"I got my chunin promotion," I offered weakly.  
Mama's lips pursed, making it clear that she didn't see that as good news, but papa gave me a smile. "Congrats, Kasumi. I knew you could do it."  
I didn't bother telling him it wasn't from the exam.  
"What's the bad news?" mama asked.  
"I'm moving out."  
Like ripping off a bandaid, right?  
"What?" mama cried, her spoon clattering against her dish as she dropped it. "Why on earth are you moving out?"  
"Maybe you should think about this," papa said instead, placing a hand on mama's leg underneath the table. "There's no need to rush into a decision like that."  
I had to really stop and think about the best angle to attack this from. If I gave any indication that I was under orders to do it, mama would absolutely flip, which was the last thing that I wanted right now.  
"It's for my safety and yours," I said. I felt like a terrible daughter, using her protective parental instincts on her, but I didn't have any other options. "The apartments suggested to me were all in shinobi districts - if I were to get attacked, there'd be people around to help, and you two wouldn't be in danger."  
"The odds of you getting attacked in the middle of the night are… are so low!" mama exclaimed. "Right?"  
I gave a small shrug. "Look at what happened to the village less than a week ago. They're low but… mama, this is a shinobi village - you never know what's going to happen. Besides, it also puts me closer to the training grounds and the Hokage tower. It's within walking distance of all the shinobi shops."  
She let out a tired sigh, putting her hand against her forehead. "You're thirteen, baby."  
"I know, mama, but I'm also a chunin," I said gently. "It's as good of a time as any."  
"But… you don't even know how to cook! You aren't familiar with the supermarkets, I haven't even had a chance to - to teach you any of my recipes…"  
"I'm sorry mama."  
"You're growing up so fast," she whispered.  
Oh, I was going to strangle Maen for this.  
"I'll still come to visit!" I insisted, reaching across the table for her hand. "Every weekend that I'm in town, I'll come for dinner. When I have free time I'll drop by! You're - you're my parents, I'm not just going to disappear!"  
Mama shook her head ruefully but I could see the resignation in her eyes.  
She knew as well as I did that, legally, she had no grounds to stop me from doing this. The second you became a shinobi in the village you were an adult. In the clans, things got a bit messier than that, but most civilian shinobi actually moved out as soon as they became genin.  
"I don't like it," she told me.  
"I know, mama, but I need to do this," I said.  
She let out another sigh. "I know baby."  
Papa was frowning, leant back in his chair and his dinner left unfinished. I could tell he wasn't exactly happy about it either but he seemed to be a bit more willing to roll with it.  
"You sound like you've already got a place picked out," papa said.  
"There's a building a street over from the Hokage tower that was suggested to me. Discounted for shinobi, I can easily afford it."  
Papa waved a hand. "We can afford to help you out financially, Kasumi, you know that," he said. "Moving out is a big step, though - you shouldn't just pick a place on a whim. Have you really, honestly thought about this?"  
"No," I said honestly. "But I still need to do it."  
"How soon?"  
"By the end of the week."  
Mama looked like I'd just kicked a puppy in front of her. "That's ridiculous!"  
"They promised to keep the place for me for a week," I lied.  
Mama opened her mouth to say something but papa beat her to it. "You have your mind already made up, don't you?" he asked.  
"Yeah."  
He nodded slowly before he said, "We'll be busy at the restaurant tomorrow, but we'll start preparing all your things the day after."  
"Eiji!"  
"You know our daughter," papa said, somehow managing a joking tilt to his tone. "When she's made up her mind that's it."  
Mama looked long and hard at papa before she stood up from the table, taking her dish into the kitchen and rinsing it off. I winced, looking down at my hands in silence. After a minute I heard her sit back down at the table and glanced back up to see her hunched over a notepad, pen in hand.  
"What are you doing?" I asked hesitantly.  
"If you're going to leave this house, I'll be damned if you do so without my recipes," she told me firmly. "Especially my ramen recipe. Naruto isn't going to start magically eating on his own, so I expect you to start feeding that boy - I still expect to see him every weekend too!"  
Despite everything a grin worked its way onto my face. No matter what I did, what I said, or how much I upset her, mama was still mama, and nothing was ever going to change that. Across from me papa's posture seemed to relax some.  
We spent the rest of the night gathered around the table like that, and I felt the weight in my heart ease some.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY  
.-.-.  
I awoke to the sound of rain dribbling against the window panes. My eyes cracked open, blearily staring around my room, the sounds from outside droning on in the background. I let out a breath and sat up in bed, rubbing a hand over the top of my head absently. My gaze stopped short when it hit the black ensemble I had set out last night.  
The memorial for Hiruzen Sarutobi was this morning.  
My body moved automatically, pulling me out of bed and sending me through my morning routine, barely paying attention to what I was doing. Mama and papa seemed to have already left for the morning, their signatures nowhere in the immediate vicinity; I had told them last night that I was attending the memorial, so if they came home while I was still gone they'd at least know where I was.  
A half hour later I found myself sitting on the living room couch, the tv quietly droning on to consume the silence. In one hand I held the house phone and the other was easily dialing in the familiar number of the Nara household.  
It rang a few times before another voice on the other end asked, "Hello?"  
"Good morning Mrs. Nara," I greeted.  
"Morning Kasumi," she answered, recognizing my voice. "Looking for Shikamaru?"  
"Yes, do you mind getting him for me?"  
"Of course."  
The sound of the phone being set against the table was quickly followed by footsteps stomping upstairs. A muffled crashing noise. A bout of yelling. I wound the phone cord around my fingers absently, blowing my hair away from my face.  
"Wha'?"  
"Morning," I said.  
A yawn. "Why are you calling me at six thirty in the morning Kas?"  
"Aren't you glad to hear that I'm home?"  
"Seriously," he grumbled. "I wasn't supposed to be awake for another hour."  
"Sorry, but I just wanted to ask if you know how Naruto's doing?"  
He let out a sigh. "He seemed alright yesterday."  
"Yeah?"  
"He was out with Iruka-sensei for ramen, so Cho and I didn't wanna interrupt or anything. He was just kind of quiet."  
With everything that happened yesterday I had completely forgotten about, well, most things. Like the fact that Naruto was experiencing at least some level of loss after the death of the Hokage. Hiruzen was one of the few people to treat Naruto like an actual human being and not the Kyuubi, a person Naruto had come to view as something of a grandfather figure.  
The show had never gotten into exactly how upsetting the loss of him was to the boy but I could wager a guess.  
"Have you talked to him at all about it?"  
"He's a big boy, Kas," Shika said. "I'm sure he's fine."  
My mouth twisted. "Being rude and insensitive is my job, not yours."  
"I'm not being insensitive," he scoffed. "Seriously. We haven't talked about it but Cho and I have poked at him when we could. You grew up with the idiot too, you know that he can bounce back from anything."  
"Still."  
He sighed again. "Just go check on him. That's what you want to do, right?"  
"Yeah, but - "  
"He'll be happy to see you're home, he was annoyed that he didn't get to say goodbye to you before you left anyways," he said, speaking right over me.  
That's right - he'd been asleep when I left.  
"I'll drop by his house soon, then," I finally said. "Make sure he gets something other than ramen for breakfast at the very least."  
"Good."  
"You can go back to sleep now, grumpy pants," I teased lightly.  
He made some kind of noise out of the back of his throat that got distorted by the phone - I assumed it was out of indignation. "I'm only grumpy because you woke me up."  
"It was important!"  
"Sure, Kas. Sure. I'll see you in a few hours."  
He hung up on me with a click and on instinct I rolled my eyes, not caring that there was nobody there to see it.  
Boys.  
.-.-.  
When I got to Naruto's apartment the spark in his signature showed he was already wide awake. I rapped my knuckles lightly against the door. "Hey, Naruto? It's me."  
There was a short second of shuffling and then a muffled call of, "Come in."  
I turned the knob, opening the door to an unsurprising sight.  
Naruto sat on his bed, bowl of ramen in his lap and the tv in the corner on, in nothing but his boxers. I snorted. "You couldn't at least get dressed?"  
He gave a shrug, mumbling a half-assed apology over a mouthful of ramen. I raised an unimpressed eyebrow and he hurriedly swallowed. "I don't gotta leave for a whole two hours."  
"Well, better than nothing - I figured you'd still be sleeping when I got here."  
He made no move to reply, turning his attention back to the tv and pushing the ramen around in its cup.  
I could see what Shika meant. He didn't give off an overt mood of sadness, rather seeming to just be a bit more subdued than usual, shoulders hunched and eyes down. His signature mirrored this to some extent, the usual shining sun that was his chakra lay hidden beneath a layer of clouds but was still shining nonetheless.  
The sound of my feet padding across the wooden floor was drowned out by the tv. I sat down on the bed beside him, wrapping my arms around his waist and leaning my head on his shoulder. He stiffened for half a second and then he relaxed, moving his arm out of the hug and letting it hang loosely across my shoulders.  
"I'm sorry," I murmured.  
"Yeah. Me too."  
"He was a good man."  
"He was the first person to treat me like I was actually human," Naruto said, leaning into my shoulder. He let out a huffing sound, like a laugh that he didn't have the heart to complete. "Back then, I never got it, why everybody treated me like trash. Even now knowing why it's still hard to wrap my head around. He never did, though. I was always just 'Naruto' to him."  
"I know," I said softly. "You cared about him."  
Naruto made a noise in the back of his throat, some odd mixture of a grunt and hum - I took it as a form of agreement. When one had mostly boys for friends, learning to interpret the sounds they made was a necessity.  
We sat in silence like that for a while. Naruto finished off his ramen while I absently let whatever was on tv wash over me. After a few minutes he got up to shower, returning shortly after to the same spot, except this time wearing a shirt and smelling considerably better. I reattached myself to him and we continued on with our morning like that until Naruto eventually spoke again.  
"Why would he do it?" the boy inquired, shifting his gaze from the tv to the window, his eyes glassy. "I just… I don't get it. What's the point?"  
I tilted my chin up, well aware of what he was getting at but still asking, "What do you mean?"  
"Why would the old man risk his life for all these people? Why does anybody?"  
I bit my lip, hesitating to say anything. Part of me wanted to give the answer I knew Iruka would give him at the memorial when Naruto would inevitably pose the same question to the man. The idea of taking that moment from him felt wrong though, so instead I simply answered, "I don't know."  
.-.-.  
We went to the memorial together.  
It was a somber affair, held on top of the Hokage tower. There would be a larger ceremony later that was open to the masses, but this one was a simple and private affair, attended by only the shinobi of the village. I recognized many of the faces, people I had seen in passing around the tower and throughout the exams, those who had fought for their village, all stuck in the bittersweet aftermath of a hard won battle.  
The cost of that victory stood clear in front of us as the ceremony wore on. At the front of the area was a long table, a long black cloth stretched over it. The pictures of shinobi who had lost their lives were framed, lined up along the table, the largest of them being of Hiruzen situated in the very centre of the table. Candles were interspersed among the frames but their flames had long since been extinguished.  
For the most part I stuck around with Naruto, arm wrapped around his waist and umbrella held high in the sky to shield us both from the rain. After Iruka came around I detached myself from him to give the two some space, mingling with some of the other people there.  
All of the Rookie 9 showed up. Team 8 and Team 10 had gathered together near the back, talking amongst themselves; Sasuke had definitely shown up, though he was long gone by the time I broke away, his signature fast retreating from the throng of shinobi. I had been hoping to at least say something to him - what, I didn't really know, but a simple 'hello' was better than nothing. I tracked his signature for few seconds, contemplating following him and ultimately deciding against it. There just wasn't a point. I had no idea what to say and knowing him he had nothing to say to me.  
I settled into talking with the others for a few minutes until I felt Kakashi-sensei's signature blip on my senses.  
I turned from the group just as he approached, arms crossed over my chest and a smirk on my lips. "When did you get here?"  
He put a hand on his heart. "Not even a 'hello'? My adorable little genin wounds me so."  
"Hello, Kakashi-sensei," I said, not bothering to correct him - I hadn't told anybody that I got promoted except mama and papa and I didn't want to mention it here of all places.  
"I hear you need to talk to your dear sensei?" he inquired.  
I inclined my head, a refusal on the tip of my tongue, when Maen's signature flashed shortly. My eyes flicked in his direction, noting the fact that he was staring directly at me. How subtle. Kakashi-sensei followed my gaze and then quirked a questioning eyebrow. Now? Of all times? Then again, this would probably be the only chance I'd get to talk to Kakashi-sensei before the shitstorm that was Itachi touched down on Konoha.  
"I did, actually," I said.  
The man nodded and placed a hand on my shoulder, Shunshining us out of the crowds without any real warning. We didn't go far, stopping up on top of the Hokage monument, out of sight and away from any stray ears.  
I stumbled at the abrupt shift once we stopped, my hand going to my stomach. A wave of nausea washed over me and I stubbornly bit down on my lip to prevent myself from actually losing what little breakfast I ate. Kakashi-sensei seemed somewhat amused.  
One he figured I'd gathered myself, he asked, "First time?"  
I scowled up at him. "What do you think?"  
He rolled his eye. "Happy to see you're still the same brat I left a month ago, kid."  
"A lot happens in a month," I muttered, shuffling over to the only tree around and unceremoniously plopping down onto the ground, letting the branches and leaves absorb some of the rain still drizzling down from the sky.  
Kakashi-sensei sat down beside me. I stared down at the people below, pulling my knees against my chest, trying my best to ignore the tension in my shoulders. When I couldn't seem to bring myself to say anything else I opted to just pull up the sleeve on my right arm, displaying the tattoo to him.  
Something flashed in his eye and I felt the spike of emotion in his signature. I moved my sleeve back down, curling my arms back around my legs and setting my chin atop of my knees.  
"I suppose a lot can happen in a month," he finally said.  
"I got a chunin promotion, too. Field promotion."  
He let out a pained sigh. "When, exactly, did all this happen?"  
"Yesterday."  
I was fairly certain there was a heavy frown hiding beneath the mask. "That's… faster than normal."  
"They said ANBU took a heavy hit and I had to make the decision immediately," I told him. "They were in a rush to refill the ranks."  
"ANBU always takes a heavy hit in situations like this," he said. "When we lose our jonin, the enemy countries take notice. When we lose our ANBU, the enemy countries are none-the-wiser."  
I turned to him curiously, taken off guard by the answer. Kakashi-sensei had never been one to sugar-coat things, but he also wasn't normally quite as blunt as that. He wasn't looking at me, though - he was staring at the clouds in the sky, entirely unreadable.  
"They recruited me as a tracking and infiltration specialist."  
There was a moment of hesitation before he seemed to put the information together. "I'm guessing they want me to train you as a tracker?"  
"On the nose."  
He let out another deep huff of air. "Tiger is going to owe me for this."  
"So that means you'll do it?"  
"Did you think I'd refuse?" he asked, sounding vaguely surprised.  
"Well… not really…"  
He raised a hand and let it sit atop my head, messing up my hair. "Good. You brats are supposed to have faith in us old folk."  
I knocked his hand away. "You're not supposed to call us brats to our faces."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Fairly."  
"Shame, that."  
It was hard to discern exactly how Kakashi-sensei felt about this.  
He didn't seem thrilled about it, I just had been expecting more of a resistance to the idea due to his rocky history within the organization.  
"Are you… are you alright with all of this?"  
Rather than give me a straight answer, he mused, "I always thought Sasuke would be the first of you into ANBU. Even then, I figured I had at least a few years before they'd be knocking at your doors."  
"But you still thought I'd get there?"  
"Your bloodlimit is an assassins wet dream," he said dryly. "If anything, I'm mostly surprised that you weren't recruited under an assassination specialization. I figured all three of you would at least get tapped for it, though I highly doubted Naruto would ever agree to it."  
I mulled over his words. "Aren't Naruto and Sasuke too high profile for ANBU? The last Uchiha and the village's jinchuriki?"  
"If you haven't picked up on the hint, kid, I was in ANBU, and I'm in every bingo book you'll find. Not everybody in ANBU is low-profile, just most."  
"Like who?"  
"Not my place to tell."  
"Awh, c'mon."  
"Not a chance, kid."  
I watched the crowd down below. Naruto and Iruka had wandered off, a short extension of my senses showing them heading towards Ichiraku's. The rest of the rookie's were on their way out as well, broken off into their respective teams and wandering away in opposite directions.  
The rain was still pouring down, now dripping through the tree branches and onto my head, not that I cared much. I was going straight home after this - I had to get a start on packing up my room. Since the apartment I was being given was already furnished, I was only taking the basics with me; Mama had insisted on keeping my room mostly the same for whenever I chose to stay overnight and I didn't have the heart to tell her that would likely never happen.  
"Really though, Kakashi-sensei - do you think it's a good idea?"  
"Honestly kid? I think it's a terrible idea."  
"Oh, thanks."  
"You asked," he pointed out. "It's like I said, you're too young."  
"I'll be fourteen when I'm a full member," I muttered uselessly, as if half a year could really make a difference.  
He seemed to actually think his words through this time. "The kind of stuff you're going to have to see and do, kid, nobody should ever have to witness. It's not a dig at you to say you're too young."  
"I know."  
"Not that it really matters what I think," he scoffed. "You've already been branded."  
I lifted up my sleeve again, staring at the mark. That was a good word for it - it was a brand, not a tattoo. Gazing down at it, watching it move against my skin, I felt more like a soldier than a shinobi. It really started to sink in just what I had gotten myself into.  
"I can't believe this is a terrible idea," I said.  
"It is, though."  
"No," I countered. "It's not. It can't be. I won't let it be a terrible idea."  
"Kid - "  
"So far, everybody has told me that I shouldn't do this," I said, not letting him finish. "Hell, even the councilwoman who offered me the position said I wasn't good enough, that I wasn't ready. She's right, you're right. Right now, I'm not ready - but I will be. I won't let this be a terrible idea."  
This wouldn't be a terrible idea because if this was truly a terrible idea, I'd end up dead because of it. That's how it works in the shinobi world. You do something stupid, you die for it.  
I wasn't ready to die.  
Not yet, not again, not while I could still help it.  
He looked down at me, shook his head and rolled his eye, but there was a certain fondness that was clear from the actions. "Fine, kid. If you say so."  
"I did say so."  
"I know, I heard."  
"Good."  
And that settled that.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE  
.-.-.  
The rest of the day passed in a fashion so normal that it set me on edge.  
After the memorial I trudged home, quickly changing into something more comfortable and getting down to business. I went through my secret stash in the wall, ensuring that I was well stocked on the essentials and taking note of what I needed to get, ignoring the pang in my chest when I realized that in a few days I was going to have to clear my little nook out. When that was dealt with I took advantage of having the house to myself, making a few adjustments to my chunin vest and ANBU uniform. They still weren't a perfect fit when I was finished but it was certainly better than nothing.  
Out of fear for where my mind would wander, I refused to stay idle for the day, taking a trip to the Nara compound when I found there was nothing else in the house for me to do. When all else failed, I could keep myself busy in my little workshop. There was always something for me to do there. Hours ticked away as I went to work making the simpler formulas, putting together a few new poison tags while I was at it.  
It was dark out when I finally trekked home and found mama and papa waiting for me, much to my surprise. Mama immediately ushered me into the kitchen where a recipe book lay open and prep for the meal already seemed to be underway. I'd helped her cook before, but this time was different, with her actually walking me through what she was doing instead of shouting orders at me. Papa piped up with the odd tip here or there but left the majority of the ordeal up to mama - he seemed to recognize that this was her way of coping. It was a simple meal, probably an intentional choice on her part, and it didn't turn out half bad. The evening was simple, quiet, relaxing even.  
The calm before the storm.  
.-.-.  
I was sitting on my bed, a book open in my lap, when there was a short tap on my window. I jumped at the sudden noise and my head jerked up, a sense of dread pooling in the pit of my stomach. Maen was crouched on the branch outside my room in full ANBU attire.  
It was mid-morning. Mama and papa had left for the day with a promise of another dinner lesson when they got back. I had curled up with a medical book for a few hours, intending on visiting the boys a little later on. Now, though, those plans were completely forgotten as I scrambled up, rushing over to my window and throwing it open.  
"What's going on?"  
"There's been an attack, our squad was called out for patrol," he said, his tone tinged with an emotion I couldn't discern.  
A wave of nausea washed over me and with some trepidation I opened up my senses, probing for signs of the fight. I had expected that when the altercation happened I'd be alerted, that I'd know it was going on, but even as I searched I knew I'd already missed it. Kakashi-sensei was now lying somewhere in a coma and Itachi was on his way to his true target.  
I slowed my thoughts down; what was done was done and I could worry about it when I wasn't about to be thrown into the field.  
"Two minutes," I simply said, my mouth feeling like it was full of cotton.  
I was a flurry of motion as I threw on my uniform, letting the mask sit on the side of my head, then raced downstairs to retrieve my belt from its place. My tessen were nestled in their holsters and glistening with a fresh sheen of poison; in the back of my mind, I managed to be grateful I had taken the time to ready them yesterday. My hand reached into the mess of tags I had stored and grabbed as many as I could, giving them a glancing look before shoving them into my back pouch; a couple of stunning poison tags, a few lethal poison tags, and then a few plain explosive tags to round out the collection.  
On the way back up I snagged a hair elastic from the living room and threw my hair into a tight bun as an afterthought. It was strongly encouraged that I either wore a wig while on duty or at least styled my hair in a way I didn't normally. Most of the time I just wore my hair down, though when it got in the way I pulled it back into either a ponytail or a braid. A bun then was my best option for practicalities sake when on duty.  
Maen hadn't moved when I returned to my room. He gave a short nod at my reappearance and said, "Let's go, the rest of the squad is waiting for us at the patrol."  
Times like this were when I saw the draw to have all of ANBU within spitting distance of each other. Precious time had to be set aside so somebody could run across the village and alert me of what was going on instead of just walking down a hallway and banging on my door.  
I moved the mask so it covered my face. "Understood."  
We ran across the rooftops. I kept my senses open as we did so, scanning the village for any sign that something was amiss. The flags were still the plain black of mourning and the air was silent, save for the odd messenger pigeon whizzing past. The only tip off were the high power signatures darting through the village, far too fast for it to be anything other than an emergency. An S-rank missing-nin attacks the village, taking down the top ranked jonin while you're without a Hokage? Yes, I do believe that is a true cause for alarm.  
It was a quick sprint across the rooftop to get into the forest. The rest of the main squad was waiting for us at the treeline, Kiyoko included, gathered just behind the trees, crouched down and speaking in hushed tones. When the two of us jumped down to ground level they all stood, making their way over to us.  
"That's what you were doing?" Aoba asked in disbelief. "She's entirely untrained and you're going to throw her into a situation that involves S-rank threats?"  
I was torn between surprise at his blunt statement and relief that I didn't seem to be the only person here with an attitude problem. It brought me back to what Koharu has said about Maen 'doing well with this type' and I felt a twinge of sympathy for the man.  
Maen took a step forward. "Her being untrained hardly matters. We're under strict orders to not engage if we come across the targets, just ensure they're not coming back for round two," Maen said, his tone making it clear that the discussion was closed there.  
Aoba turned towards me, no doubt frowning beneath his mask, before he ducked his head in a short bow. "Yes sir," he said.  
Maen nodded at him in acknowledgement and strode forward, leading us out into the forest, keeping the pace slower while he began the briefing.  
"Due to the severity of the situation, I'll be keeping this short," Maen said. "Eight minutes ago and counting the village was attacked by Itachi Uchiha and another unknown shinobi. They engaged with three elite jonin and won, fleeing into the forest after the altercation. Our job is to patrol the areas surrounding the village and send warning in if they're getting close again - that's mostly your job, Fox."  
No pressure. I doubted they were still anywhere within my range. Eight minutes was more than enough time for any shinobi to get damn far, certainly more than two kilometres. I let my eyes shut, reaching out as far as I could manage. Instinctually, I found myself roaming towards the hospital, where I knew Kakashi-sensei must have been by now, but I stopped myself. I couldn't allow myself to be distracted by my concerns.  
"Sensor?" Genma inquired.  
"Uh huh," I said, only half paying attention to what was going on around me.  
"Why's she closing her eyes?" Aoba whispered, though his voice carried through the otherwise quiet air with ease.  
"The less stimuli I receive the more easily I can extend my range," I answered dryly, letting them pick up on the unverbalized request of 'shut up'. I pushed and pushed, straining my senses as far as I could, but there was nothing as I had suspected. I opened my eyes and shook my head. "Nobody within two kilometres or so."  
Maen had his arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrow and intense, the cogs in his head spinning at a speed only a Nara could manage. Some of the tension in the rest of the squad eased with the knowledge that there was no danger within the immediate vicinity but my shoulders remained tight and my hands clenched at my side.  
"Let's get going," Maen said. "You can monitor the area while we're on the move, right?"  
"Yeah, but my range isn't as good if I have to be dividing my attention," I warned.  
"It'll do," he said and took off into the branches.  
We all followed and I left my senses wide open, tracking the area around the village, but keeping specific attention to the gates of the village.  
My mind was moving a mile a minute. Vehemently I smothered the spark of hope and the distracting thoughts of what if, what if, what if.  
There was no chatter as we whipped through the forest at a grueling pace. I tried to keep the amount of chakra I was using to a minimum, not eager to overexert myself, just in case. Without my weights holding me back it wasn't too difficult for me to keep up but I made a mental note to give my stamina extra attention in the coming weeks of training.  
Then, I felt it, the asshole's chakra passing the threshold that put him outside of the village.  
"Sasuke Uchiha's signature left the village… sir," I said, hastily adding on the last part. I may not have liked him and I may not have always used my manners around him but I sure as hell knew that with this uniform on I was required to show the proper respect - that was one boundary I couldn't push.  
Maen froze, bringing the rest of our entourage to a screeching halt. He let out a low curse and asked, "Is he alone?"  
"Yes, sir. I can't sense any signatures shadowing him. If you wish to follow him we should move soon before he gets out of my range."  
"What the hell is he thinking?" Genma muttered.  
Belatedly, I realized the question was directed towards me, his teammate and the only one who actually knew him. "Nothing good," I said, biting my lip behind my mask. Could I say more? I knew exactly what he was thinking. Was it a good idea for me to try and mess around with this? There was a beat of silence as my internal war raged on and then I spoke again. "The only thing I can think of would be that he knows Itachi's around and he's going after him."  
"I didn't think he was that stupid," Aoba scoffed.  
I was vaguely surprised at the short burst of indignation I felt on my teammates behalf. Frankly I thought Sasuke chasing his brother was a decidedly horrible idea, even if part of it stemmed from a desire to try and protect Naruto, but that didn't stop me from saying, "Not stupid, just reckless and desperate."  
This elicited another curse from our squad captain. "Kami. We'll trail him, see what he's up to and report to Tiger while we're on the move. Lead us to him, Fox."  
A chorus of affirmation traveled through the squad and we were on the move again.  
I willed my posture to relax, my breathing steady, hands loose at my sides, while on the inside I was screaming.  
I'd kept an iron grip on my thoughts, waiting out the orders, unsure of where the hell this situation was going and not wanting to get my hopes up, just in case this turned out to be a dead end. I'd thought this day over, what would happen when it came, a mess of scenarios churning through my head since I realized what was on the horizon a little less than a week ago. Believing that I had no chance of intervening, I'd done my best to shut them out and ignore the troubling thoughts.  
Now, though, I'd intervened.  
I hadn't allowed myself to hope that I could do anything, but could this work out for the better?  
"Report, Fox."  
The words snapped me back to reality. Reflexively I answered, "Twenty degrees north-east of my position, roughly a kilometer away and closing."  
"Speed?"  
"Only just slower than us."  
He made a short noise of acknowledgement. "Guess we'll just have to pick up the pace," he said.  
Hint, hint.  
"Yes, sir."  
I allowed myself a hint more chakra and pumped up the speed to as fast as I could manage without overextending myself, eager to catch up to the boy before he could get too far. The further we got from the village, the tighter Maen's posture seemed to grow and the more agitated his chakra signature became. Did he know that Naruto had been taken out of the village? Did he know where Naruto had been taken outside the village? It would have been kept under wraps that Jiraiya was leaving, even more so that Naruto would be going with him, but as an ANBU captain those were the kind of details he'd be privy to.  
We gradually inched closer to Sasuke's position over the course of a minute, putting us a short ways behind him, trailing at about fifty metres and slightly above him in the trees. I lessened the pace some so that we were nearly matching the boy ahead of us. The rest of the squad followed suite, no doubt catching on as to the reason why. There was little to no chance he'd be able to detect us where we were. With the added elevation we wouldn't be visible to him and I knew that his meager chakra sensing abilities wouldn't be functioning with the amount of adrenaline he was experiencing.  
My heart was in my throat. I'd be a damn liar if I said that going into a situation like this, altering it as extremely as I now have, didn't scare me in a shit-your-pants fashion; the fact that I still couldn't seem to sense Itachi or Kisame didn't help the matter in the least. They would have been further ahead, having had a head start, of course, but with how close we had gotten and how quickly I knew things escalated, they should have been at least tickling the edge of my senses. Sasuke's signature was like a lantern amidst the dark static of the forest while Itachi and Kisame should have been as bright as damn lighthouses.  
At my sides my hands began to clench and I pried them open, letting out a breath.  
"Target is fifteen degrees to my north-west, fifty metres steady," I intoned, carefully monitoring the volume of my voice.  
"Still no hostile or suspicious signatures?" he asked.  
"Negative, sir."  
"How are we going to proceed, sir?" Hayate rasped, speaking for the first time.  
"The nearest village to Konoha isn't far from here," Maen said in an entirely neutral tone. "On the assumption this is his destination, we're going to cut in front of him to scout ahead and report back to Tiger for further instruction."  
I gave him a sideways glance but held my tongue. Maybe he didn't know what was going on? It was never expressed who exactly was made aware of the excursion to bring Tsunade back to the village. There was the council who would know, which meant Koharu would have been aware, and as she seemed to be at least somewhat tied with ANBU, there was a distinct possibility Maen knew but no guarantee.  
I'd just have to take it one step at a time.  
Since I was no longer needed to guide the squad I fell back into step beside Kiyoko, letting Maen take the lead and set the pace. He set the speed up to one that was considerably faster than mine. Grudgingly, I dipped further into reserves to reinforce my muscles, unwilling to voice any kind of complaint. If worst came to worse, I had a soldier pill in my back pouch but I severely hoped I wasn't going to need it.  
We flew through the trees, veering to the left and giving Sasuke a wide berth as we surpassed him.  
I kept my senses wide open, anxiously scanning the areas around us to the best of my ability, torn between worry and confusion. It was one thing in the village to have had my senses let me down - I could blame that on having not watched out for it as well as I should have. My instincts normally kicked in when a big threat got too close but given I hadn't expected it to happen so fast and the distance I was from it I could brush that off. But now? We had to be within two kilometers of their position. The logical part of my brain pointed in the direction of genjutsu. So far my senses hadn't been fooled by genjutsu but I had yet to face any truly high level cloaking techniques such as the kind an S-rank nin would have up their sleeve. The closest thing was ANBU in the Hokage's office and even then theirs weren't meant to be foolproof - it was intentionally on the weaker side to serve as a warning for anybody foolish enough to consider getting aggressive in the presence of the Hokage.  
A short huff of a sigh managed to sneak past my lips.  
"Don't worry too much, little hime," Kiyoko said from my left, no doubt grinning beneath her mask. "We're probably not going to be seeing any combat."  
Up ahead I caught a twitch in Maen's shoulder at her use of the nickname.  
Despite everything I groaned. "Not that nickname, not you too!"  
"It's cute," Kiyoko said.  
"No, it's terrible."  
"She's right about the combat though. We're still on strict orders to not engage unless absolutely necessary," Hayate said to my surprise.  
"That doesn't make me feel much better," I said.  
"Look at it this way," Aoba piped in. "You get a good story about your first mission."  
"Yeah, could be worse. I had to screw a seventy year old man on my first mission," Genma drawled, his voice tinged with disdain.  
Aoba snickered and said, "I remember that. I'm pretty sure Turtle gave you that mission because you stole her dango."  
"I apologized to her, though."  
I knew what they were doing.  
Nerves on a mission, especially one as high danger as this, weren't good. I had always felt the banter in the show was woefully out of place until the Land of Waves mission where I actually experienced the stress for myself and realized it was necessary to keep us grounded.  
I took a deep breath in and shoved my nerves away. Even if we did get into a fight - knowing my luck, it probably would come to that - being wound too tight would just get myself or somebody else killed.  
The trees were beginning to thin out when I felt Naruto's signature blip on the edge of my senses. It was spiking mildly, a tell that he was irritated but not in any danger. Relief washed over me, though I did my damndest not to show it, keeping my voice flat as I asked, "Sir?"  
Everybody in the squad suddenly tensed up, likely expecting to hear of an incoming threat.  
"What's going on, Fox?"  
"I'm sensing the signature of Naruto Uzumaki, thirty degrees north-east of my position, stationary and a bit under two kilometers off."  
Maen's signature spiked. "Alone?"  
"Yes, sir."  
"For fuck's sake… alright," he said and reached back to pull out the walkie talkie attached to his belt as we moved. "Tiger, we've got a problem."  
I couldn't hear the voice on the other end but from the shifts in Maen's chakra signature during the short exchange, he wasn't particularly happy about what he was hearing. I kept an eye on the area around us. We'd pulled far enough ahead of Sasuke that I couldn't feel his signature while we grew closer to Naruto's.  
When Jiraiya's signature lit up my senses I signaled at Maen, not wanting to interrupt his conversation verbally but knowing that I still needed to alert him. For obvious reasons, I didn't know the ANBU sign language yet, so I opted to go with the more direct Konoha signals.  
There were three forms of sign language that we were expected to at least have a grasp of the basics on. One could be used on the skin of a comrade, like I'd used with Sasuke in the Forest of Death for discrete communication with only one person; one involved the use of otherwise innocuous actions, like I'd used during the Land of Waves mission, to communicate with multiple comrades in the presence of other people who could see you; one for direct contact that just used hands to communicate with a group in a setting where you just only had to worry about being heard not watched. Genin just needed the absolute basics but I had the full languages of all three easily stored in my mind.  
I surged forward some, tapping his shoulder to get his attention and initiating the conversation.  
'Signature of Jiraiya recognized, fifty degrees north-west of my position. Just under two kilometres away, moving at civilian speeds.'  
He nodded, not seeming terribly surprised. Without missing a beat in his conversation with Tiger he signaled back, 'Understood. Continue on set path.'  
Maen ended the conversation as we approached the end of the forest, the image in front of us shifting to a dirt road that lead into the bustling little village. He stopped at the edge and crouched behind a tree, the rest of us copying his actions.  
"I can't go into details because I'm not under the authority to reveal S-rank secrets," he started off dryly. "But we're under orders to ensure the security of Naruto Uzumaki and alert Jiraiya of the attack on Konoha by Itachi Uchiha and his accomplice. Our orders from there are at his discretion."  
"What about the Uchiha?" Aoba asked.  
"Uzumaki is the priority, however we're to ensure the security of the Uchiha if he gets too close and escort him back to the village unless Jiraiya says otherwise," Maen answered. He turned to me and I straightened my back. "Fox, you're to go and alert Jiraiya of what's happening and point him in our direction. Once that is done, stay in that position and await for my signal to regroup with us. If you even suspect that the enemies are aiming for you, signal to us and either regroup or relocate to a safer position, whichever you deem is the most plausible option."  
"Yes, sir," I said. As much as I wanted to be there to help in case shit hit the fan I was fully aware that I'd only get in the way. I'd just have to let them do their job and trust that everything was going to work out alright.  
He nodded at me. "Good. What's Uzumaki's position?"  
"Twenty five degrees north-east of my position, maybe a kilometer and a half away."  
He turned back to the rest of the squad and said, "The rest of you are with me, let's move."  
I focused my attention on Jiraiya's signature, far outshining the surrounding civilians in the village, sprinting towards his position and valiantly trying to ignore the fact that I still couldn't sense Itachi or Kisame. The naive part of my brain was hoping we'd really been that fast and gotten ahead of them.  
Jiraiya was closer than Naruto.  
I went over rooftops, tracking him down to the casino and landing on top of it, giving a short burst of my chakra in signal. Even shinobi who weren't natural born sensors gained some level of aptitude for sensing the chakra around them. I gave only a small signal, enough so that any shinobi in the building would have felt it but nobody further away than thirty feet would have been able to catch it. Just in case. Even though my senses were telling me there was nobody else in the area, something in my gut didn't feel right.  
Five seconds passed before the white-haired man was standing in front of me, more serious than I'd ever seen him.  
"What's going on?" he asked sharply.  
"Itachi Uchiha and… an accomplice attacked the village," I informed him, catching myself before I said Kisame. I only then realized that he hadn't actually been identified, only Itachi had, and there was no way I should have known who was with him on my own. "Our squad was - "  
I hadn't even finished when Jiraiya disappeared in a cloud of smoke and leaves.  
I scowled, slightly miffed, though it wasn't worth getting worked up over. In the grand scheme of things Naruto was more important than what I was going to say - besides, Jiraiya of the Sannin could pretty much barrel into any situation uninformed and make it out without a scratch, a reality he was all too aware of. Maen would just give Jiraiya the information when he got there.  
Absently, I fell into a crouch, keeping watch around me. There was nobody around. Yet I couldn't seem to slow the beat of my heart, the ominous feeling that something was wrong plaguing my mind.  
Then there was a sudden, sharp twist of instinctual panic in my gut and I was on my feet, tessen pulled from my holster. I had enough time to process the fact that a boy I didn't recognize stood in front of me, clad in the black and red jacket of the Akatsuki, before my entire body seemed to lock up.  
The boy was just that - a boy, no older than me. He had a mop of messy brown hair and eyes of the same colour, his mouth twisted in a grin, hand held out in front of him.  
I couldn't move a muscle. It didn't even feel like I was breathing for myself, as if the boy in front of me was carefully controlling the movement of my lungs. My chakra senses seemed to have been cut off as well.  
What the fuck.  
"What an adorable little ANBU," the boy crooned. "I told Itachi I felt somebody watching us, but he wouldn't believe me. I'm glad I was the one to look for you."  
I went to reply, scream, do anything, but my body wouldn't respond. Adrenaline coursed through my veins like fire that couldn't be put out. He inclined his head curiously and twitched his hand. Whatever had kept my jaw locked shut and held my vocal cords at bay loosened. I opened my mouth to shout but all that came out was a strangled noise, barely louder than a whisper.  
A sick amusement danced in his eyes at my feeble attempts to call for help and he let out a short chuckle.  
"Fuck you," I spat, the heat in my voice making up for the fact that I was barely able to squeak out the words.  
"Oh, that's not nice," he chided, clucking his tongue. "Here I wanted to have an actual conversation."  
"Who are you?"  
"Wouldn't you like to know?"  
"Obviously."  
He clenched his fist. Everything in me constricted painfully, as if a massive snake had wrapped itself around my entire body and was squeezing the life out of it. The edges of my vision started to blur, struggling to try and breathe but finding myself unable to call air to my lungs. He opened his fist again and I wheezed out a breath.  
"Now, now, let's be civilized," he said.  
If I had the ability to alter my facial features, I'd have turned my lips up in a snarl and narrowed my eyes. As is I was able to twitch up the corner of my mouth and hope that the fury in my eyes sufficed.  
"Where's your partner?" I instead asked.  
"Waiting for a signal," he said and waved his hand dismissively. "He'll come charging in after five minutes, though, if I don't go get him. Not that it matters. Hopefully, this won't take that long."  
"I won't tell you anything."  
His eyebrow rose but the smirk didn't move from his face. "Oh?" he asked, his tone portraying his amusement.  
"You can try whatever you want, you won't get anything out of me," I snarled but my voice wavered in a way that took away most of the impact.  
Part of me was glad, actually, that I couldn't move - if I could, I'd be shaking like a leaf.  
I was terrified and confused, a horrible combination.  
This wasn't Kisame. I had no idea who this was. There weren't many members of the Akatsuki in the show and he certainly was not one of them. So who was he? Why was somebody so young in the Akatsuki? Only S-rank shinobi were welcomed into the ranks of the Akatsuki and to be that strong that young would meant he had to be all kinds of fucked up.  
Slow down.  
Relax.  
Focus.  
Worrying about him and who he was when I clearly didn't know wasn't constructive. I had no idea how long Maen would wait before he would realize something was up. They weren't far from here, so he'd likely only wait a minute or less after giving the signal before coming to find me. Then again, this boy had been able to find me, which lent itself to the idea that he'd feel if Maen approached and kill me.  
I was on my own.  
I forced away the panic that clouded my mind at that thought in favor of actually constructive thought processes.  
What kind of technique was he using to do this? It felt focused on not my limbs themselves but the muscles I used to function. He was manually controlling the rise and fall of my chest. My mind shifted, going back to what he said about feeling somebody watching him; he'd not only kept himself and Itachi off of my chakra senses, he'd actually felt my chakra senses at work. Most people assumed sensing chakra was just a thing people could do, but it was actually something of a chakra technique involving a person's yin chakra. It was why anybody could learn how to do it but some people were simply born more adept at it, their yin chakra better suited for extending out and receiving input.  
The pieces clicked into place - he wasn't just controlling my muscles, he was controlling the chakra inside them that I used to move. Everybody, even civilians, required chakra in their body to move. Shinobi just learned how to control it. If you ran out of chakra, your heart was no longer capable of beating and your body would shut down, which was why extreme chakra exhaustion was deadly. Or, if a Hyuuga hit your arm with Gentle Fist, you lost the function of it because they'd block off the paths going into the limb.  
It also made sense, then, why they'd send him here with Itachi instead of sending the two in their usual partnership. This boy would be capable of controlling the chakra should Naruto get out of control.  
Just as a tester I went to give a burst of my chakra and, as I suspected, it gave no response.  
In all my knowledge of this world, I'd never heard of a technique like it.  
"Who are you?" I repeated.  
"You already know who I am," he said. "And I already know who you are."  
If I could, I would have furrowed my eyebrows. "What?"  
"I mean, you don't know my name, really, to you I'm probably just 'the boy'. Like how I know you're just 'the girl'. I think, at least. It's hard to tell with that mask of yours but those eyes and that hair are pretty hard to forget."  
"What of the boy?"  
"That's not the girls fault."  
"The boy has hardly done anything yet."  
"The boy is making an atrociously foolish mistake."  
I opened my mouth to say something to express the sheer feeling of you have got to be fucking kidding me but no sound came out.  
Him?  
This was who those people in my dream were talking about? Those people in my dream were real?  
"Oh, what the fuck," I managed.  
"This isn't quite how I expected to meet my counterpart, but I suppose it's better than nothing," he mused.  
My mind tried to wrap itself around all the realizations that came attached to the idea that this boy in front of me was 'the boy'. "Counterpart?" I asked.  
He inclined his head again. "I'm assuming you died and were shoved back into this world too, right?"  
"That about sums it up," I mumbled.  
The idea that somebody in the Akatsuki had the same kind of knowledge about this world that I did made me want to vomit.  
As if he could read my mind, the boy smiled and said, "We're working towards the same goal, you know. We're just taking different paths."  
"What are you - "  
Suddenly, my mouth was forced shut, his hold wrapping itself back around my vocal cords.  
In the corner of my eye I watched as one Itachi Uchiha walked into my field of view, a distinctly unimpressed air to him. He glanced at me, a short flick of his eyes that sent the tips of his mouth turning down ever so slightly. A second passed and his lips straightened out as he turned back to the boy in front of me.  
"Playing with your food?" Itachi asked.  
The boy gave a goofy grin. "Of course not, why ever would you think that?"  
"She's still alive."  
"You're no fun," he said, directing a pouting lip towards the older boy.  
"We have a job to do," Itachi said. "Hurry up. If we fail, Pein will not be happy with us."  
"Pein loves me. You know he can't stay mad at me."  
"He cannot stay mad at you because he will kill you for incompetency."  
"Nah," the boy scoffed.  
"You specifically requested this mission," Itachi said. "He will not be pleased if you return without the Kyuubi."  
"He'll forgive me, he always does."  
The exchange seemed odd and unnecessary until I realized that was probably the exact point. He was stalling. If what he said was true, that he was working towards the same goal as me, he wouldn't want to actually try and capture Naruto. Itachi, still loyal to Konoha and also not enthused at the idea of stealing the Kyuubi, would of course play along, at least to a certain extent.  
Itachi turned his gaze back to me and there was a tinge of sympathy in his eyes. Then he said, "End this."  
The boy heaved a dramatic sigh. "Oh, fine, if I must." He walked forward, hand still extended out towards me. I felt a flash of primal panic, trying to free myself from the hold, do something. He approached me and raised his other hand to my head, giving a small wink. "Nothing personal, sweetheart."  
There was a painful, blinding white flash in my mind, then everything went black.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO  
.-.-.  
When my eyes finally blinked open I wasn't sure where I expected to find myself - standing in front of a large crystal ball across from the woman from my dreams certainly wasn't it, though. The sentiment must have been plain in my face because her lips turned upwards and the lines around her eyes crinkled in amusement.  
"It's good that you are awake," she said, the words spoken in English with an accent that I couldn't discern.  
I took a step back, opening my mouth to say something but finding my attention being pulled downwards to stare at the ground - or lack thereof.  
The pure white beneath me was cold against the soles of my feet, an expansive void of apparent nothingness that sent me stumbling backwards. My gaze ventured to my legs, bare as well, my eyes steadily growing wider as I became suddenly aware of my nakedness. Shinobi weren't typically the modest type but I still found myself winding my arms around my chest with a startled yelp.  
Somebody speaking English, nakedness, and some weird white room that I've only seen in my dreams. There is only one truly logical conclusion to pull from all of that.  
"Am I dead?" I blurted out, my chin jerking up to look back at her.  
"Ah, not quite, champion," she answered. "Though it was a close call."  
I blinked. "Then… uh… wait, who are you?"  
The woman settled herself further in her chair - throne is a more apt description, actually - with her hands settled in her lap. She regarded me with an odd combination of amusement and curiosity, tipping her head to the side in a manner that sent her silver hair spilling over her shoulder. There was something about how she sat, shoulders held back and the way the muscles of her face shifted with her smile, that seemed oddly familiar. Part of me wanted to scoff that obviously she'd be familiar, I'd seen her in my dreams countless times in the last few months. But something in my gut told me it was more than that.  
She interlocked her fingers and leant forward, staring at me intently.  
"You know who I am, champion," she said.  
For a split second, the familiar visage of an elderly woman took over her form before she returned to her previous appearance.  
"Litania," I breathed.  
"Indeed."  
Even though she had told me I wasn't dead I still found myself doubting it. There was no way any of this could be real. I ran a tired hand over my face and asked, "What the fuck is going on?"  
Maybe I was just hallucinating from what that boy had done to me.  
"Always the complicated questions," she mused. She stood, striding towards me. Instinctually I went to back away from her, flinching violently, but she gave a gentle shake of her head. "I do not intend to bring you any harm, champion."  
Not that it would matter, there was nowhere to run.  
Litania stood in front of me and reached out her hand, slowly so as not to startle me with the action, and gently placed her thumb in the middle of my forehead. My eyes grew as large as saucers and I froze beneath her touch. There was a bright light, her eyes glowing a brilliant blue, then my mind was flooded with a tsunami of images and knowledge.  
Faces, names, the dominions in which they ruled. Ancient strength far beyond my comprehension. Flashes of two women of incredible power weaving the foundations of reality and a third who binds it all together. Litania, holding the lives of every mortal within her grasp while her husband ushered them down into the afterlife. A young woman sitting cross-legged on the ground, a spool sitting in front of her and bright red string wound around her fingers. Images of Annika, short bursts spanning across my entire life and eventual death mirrored by a similar montage that catalogued the life of the boy I had met - Haruo, a voice in the back of my mind supplied.  
I bent forward, clutching my head with a low moan. "What… did you… do?"  
"I gave you your answers. Not to everything, of course, as the mortal mind can only handle so much, but I have given you what information I could."  
The feeling was taking information overload to a whole new level. With the amount of memories and knowledge I'd crammed into my head I'd always felt like my thoughts were vaguely clogged up by the excess; the new images and insight I'd acquired were now giving me that feeling twice fold, damn near unbearable while my brain was beginning to adjust.  
Why am I here?  
I waded through the information I had, struggling to find my footing amidst the excess, before I gravitated towards what I hoped was relevant.  
Something, something, something…  
The memory - is it even that? - engulfed me entirely.  
I'm looking through another's eyes, attention focused wholly on the crystal ball that, in reality, was only a few short feet away from me. From this perspective I watch as Haruo reaches out, much the same as Litania had, and places his hand atop my head. With an awareness not my own I see the barely there flare of my chakra, struggling against the hold, while his surprisingly weak signature doesn't seem to so much as fidget. It's almost impossible to discern what happens in short burst of action. One second, there's the black snaking entity I recognized as my yin chakra. Then before my eyes the chakra goes from a thin form, floating around my head like a shadow, to a jumbled mess, shattering into pieces that scatter across my body. My body crumples to the ground unceremoniously. His chakra doesn't seem to even leave his body, yet he somehow slices through mine like nothing I had ever seen. The two men standing on the roof with my now prone body look between each other, speaking words that I can't hear, then sprint out of sight.  
I - she? he? - reach forward towards the crystal ball, my hand going through its surface and gently making contact with what's left of the chakra. The entity stirs, reacting instinctively to the touch. I encourage the interaction and gently, slowly, carefully, coax a piece of the chakra out, allowing it to detach itself from my body and pull it out of the crystal. The black chunk of chakra sits in my palm, writhing with life. I hold my hand up to my mouth and blow, filling the air from my lungs with a burst of energy.  
The chakra absorbs it and begins to blossom. I take a few steps forward, letting the chakra fall from my palm and onto the ground. Minutes tick by and with each passing second the chakra grows, becoming more and more recognizable until it forms a being with long auburn hair. I move back, towards the seat situated beside the crystal ball, watching as the person standing in front of me blinks crisp violet eyes open in surprise.  
I feel myself yanked back from the memory, a small gasp bursting from my lips.  
"You… formed me out of my chakra?" I asked, processing what I'd just seen. It was only logical to make the leap that the perspective I'd watched that unfold from had been Litania's.  
The woman had moved back to her seat while I'd zoned out, fingers twined together and her chin rested atop them. She hummed. "Indeed. The boy scattered your chakra. While it reforms, I simply pulled some of it into this realm," she answered. At the hint of alarm I'm sure showed on my face she waved a hand. "Not to worry, champion. This piece will be attracted to the rest once it resets itself and needs it back."  
"Isn't my yin chakra just a manifestation of my soul?" I asked faintly.  
The idea that he had scattered my yin chakra, my very soul, was horrifying.  
Her lip curled in a smile. "It is, but the soul is a very resilient thing, yours especially. It will bring itself back together."  
"Ah."  
"I had reasons for bringing you here, though, champion," she said. "Answers that I have not yet given you."  
"Ah?"  
"My husband, I'll admit, is not thrilled with the recent… developments," she said. "We hadn't anticipated you two meeting quite so soon - if ever - nor that the boy would attack you."  
I forced myself to stay in the present, feeling the memories and knowledge yanking at my conscious, demanding my attention, calling at me to give it the attention it deserves. Instead, I said, "He called it a mistake. You disagreed with him."  
"I did," she confirmed. "I am rather curious to see where the two of you lead that world."  
"He wants us to do things the way we know it's supposed to go," I said. "Why don't you?"  
"I want what's best for the world, what's best for the people who live in it - I want as many people to be alive in that world as possible. The vision you know is as decided by Fain on orders of Balec. It is the most balanced outcome for that world," she amended. "This, in the end, benefits us gods more than you mortals though - my husband, of course, believes we ought to follow our orders set out by Cha and Oda."  
Cha, Oda, Balec.  
My mind fllashed to the scene it had shown me before. One woman, emitting a blinding white light; another woman, oozing pure black energy; a third, twining the two together and bringing forth the grey of the world.  
Chaos, Order, Balance.  
I shoved away the information that instantly whizzed through my head - helpful as it was, it was awfully distracting.  
"Isn't what's balanced what's best for those of us who are mortal, too?" I asked. "Balance is what keeps the world in check."  
She gave me a long, appraising look. "Truly, that depends on whom you ask," she finally said. "You ask my mother, she will tell you no, Order is what's best for the worlds. You ask Cha, she will tell you no, Chaos should reign over the people. Yet, it is as you said, Balec is the one who binds reality and all of us who inhabit it together, keeping it in Balance."  
I tried not to frown at the decidedly dodgy answer.  
"So… yes? Balance is what's best for the world?" I pressed. "As your husband wants?"  
That same look, her eyes glancing me from head to toe, picking me apart and mentally putting me back together, trying to decide on exactly how much of an answer the question is worth. She stands from her chair, gliding over to the crystal ball and beckoning me closer. I moved forward, stopping at her side and gazed expectantly at the sphere. With a light touch the ball whirls to life and images of Konoha take shape.  
Not just any part of Konoha, though - the Uchiha compound back when it was actually filled with Uchiha.  
I turned, giving her a questioning look.  
"My husband wishes for me to show you the dangers of straying from the path you know," she said. "He is doing the same right now with the boy."  
"The Uchiha compound," I murmured, the realization hitting me.  
"You often wondered what would have happened if you saved the Uchiha's," she explained. "I will show you now, champion."  
It didn't move, not like how a movie did. There were flashes of images, transitioning from one to another in rapid succession. An image of Itachi being apprehended before he has he chance to go through with his orders. A meeting among the clan heads breaking out in shouting and arguments, filled wholly with disagreements. Tensions are high among the village, shinobi around the streets glancing at each other suspiciously. Fighting breaking out between the clans, fracturing the council as the heads pick sides. The village reduced to civil war. Faces I know, people I care about, staring up at me lifelessly. Blood bathing the streets.  
My hand went to my mouth. "Oh my God…"  
"Had you prevented the massacre of the clan, one way or another, the tensions would have simply continued to grow until it spilled over into a civil war among the village." She waved her hand across the surface, displaying another image, equally bloody, but stained red with the Sharingan. "If the Uchiha had managed to take control of the village, they would have simply driven it into the ground through military force, unravelling the village at its foundations and leading to further infighting."  
"But… it…"  
"As you mortals say, 'the lesser of two evils'," she said as if I hadn't spoke up. "Preventing the tragedy would have simply led to an arguably worse incident - such is the inevitability of Fain."  
"You said you believe we can lead the world to a better future," I whispered, unable to avert my gaze from the horrifying images.  
"I do," she said. "But that does not make me right."  
"Then why bother?"  
She gave me a dry smile. "It is simply in my nature," she said. "I desire an outcome that would land more souls in the lands of the living. The future you know, while not to an extreme degree, tips the favor in my husband's scale, part of why he's so adamant we keep to our orders. Regardless of my desires, I will admit, my husband is likely right in his belief you two must be warned - even if his reasoning behind the desire differs from mine. You should know what kinds of consequences your choices can have."  
"So you think I should just do it like how I know it'll go?"  
"Do what you think is right, champion," she said. "You have no orders."  
"You're sending me mixed signals here," I protested weakly. "I don't know what's right!"  
"You will," she promised.  
"How?" I asked. I motioned to the ball. "If every choice I'm going to make will just end up screwing things up why should I do anything else?"  
The woman did not respond verbally, instead simply giving me a smile and placing a hand on my shoulder. I let out a soft, frustrated breath, still keeping my eyes locked on the images that had yet to fade, a personification of everything I ever feared meddling with the timeline would bring about.  
This was what always scared me.  
The notion that I was just screwing things up trying to fix them.  
It was… hard to describe, to be told that your fears aren't unfounded. To have it be made clear to you that you had very good reason to be fearful. It was simultaneously gratifying and soul-shattering, really.  
"I have faith in Oda," Litania said, breaking the silence. "She chose you to be her champion and I have yet to see fault in her judgement."  
I let out a breathy chuckle, unable to keep the tinge of bitterness from tainting it. "I wish I could say the same."  
Then, from deep within my core, I felt something tug on me. A resonating call that I couldn't ignore.  
Litania frowned. "So soon," she said. "You're being pulled back to your body."  
"What?"  
"I had hoped for more time."  
A sudden sense of urgency sent tingles up my spine even as the world began to shift around the edges, blurring my vision. "Wait! I still have questions!"  
"We will meet again, champion," she said.  
"But - I - "  
"Until then."  
And like a rubber-band that had been pulled taut the world around me was yanked away, pushing me back into darkness.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE  
.-.-.  
I felt, upon waking up, decidedly wrong.  
The 'what' was unplaceable, though I had my suspicions about the 'why'.  
Without opening my eyes I could tell that I was in a hospital. The sterile scent that instantly filled my nose with a single deep inhalation was a dead giveaway. The bed, as well, had that peculiar sense of comfort, the one only a hospital bed managed to achieve, that typically made me distinctly uncomfortable. Right then, though, I didn't get that itch of discomfort - an oddity that grabbed my attention.  
Frankly, I didn't really feel anything - emotionally, at least. My eyes snapped open. It was like there was a lens over my vision, veiling everything around me in a thin fog that sucked the colour out of the world. Everything was dull and dark. It was like I had gotten disconnected from the world around me.  
Belatedly, I realized that I wasn't the only person in the room. There was a full second that spanned from when my eyes opened to when the input of visual information reached my brain - sluggish, even by civilian standards. In the back of my mind, a little spark of something flared to life at the fact that that was very wrong indeed. The sensation was easy to brush off.  
There were two other people in the room with me. To my left, sitting in a chair at the bedside, sat one Inoichi Yamanaka. The man flashed me a smile but the muscles in his face were tight as he said, "Hello, Kasumi."  
"Hello Mr. Yamanaka," I answered. That same spark went up at the utter lack of inflection in my voice, the flatness in my tone unlike anything I'd ever heard leave my mouth.  
The muscles in his face twitched again, likely taking note of that as well. The other person in the room stepped forward, a clipboard clasped in her hands, her posture stiff.  
"It's good you'e awake, Kasumi," Kiyoko said. "We were beginning to worry."  
"You gave us quite the scare," Inoichi said.  
I simply inclined my head, giving no verbal reply. The two of them exchanged a look.  
Kiyoko approached, setting the clipboard down on the edge of my bed. Her movements were slow and deliberate. She reached her hand out, lit up in green, maintaining eye contact the entire time. However, even with the extra caution she was using, my mind was foggy and the familiar action set off my instincts. A curl of heat burned in my stomach and before I could register the movement I had jerked away. Kiyoko instantly took a step back, giving me a wide berth as she lowered her hand to her side.  
The two of them exchanged another look.  
I blinked at the unconscious movement.  
Inoichi pursed his lips. "Kasumi… can you explain why you flinched?"  
My hand fell to my tummy, where I had felt the build up that I couldn't discern. "I do not know."  
It was as if he look through me, not at me, as his eyes locked with mine. The pupil-less green of his eyes shifted and flickered. Then I realized he probably wasn't looking at me, in the sense that one normally expected - the Yamanaka were sensors, particularly powerful ones at that, who specializes in the functionings of yin chakra. My yin chakra had been damaged. It was only logical that, then, as a specialist in the field, Inoichi would be called in for assistance.  
"I feared this might be the case," he muttered, running a hand through his lengthy ponytail.  
"What is it?" Kiyoko asked. She went to take a step forward but her eyes flickered to my face and she stopped short.  
He didn't turn to her, though. "Kasumi, are you aware of how the yin chakra in a person's body functions?"  
"Yes," I said. "The yin chakra is the spiritual energy of a person, a representation of their soul."  
"Very good. Being that their soul is tied to their yin chakra, it also means their personality, emotions, and memories are contained within their yin chakra," he said.  
Kiyoko let out a breath. "Oh, Kami."  
"Kasumi, when you were brought in a week ago, you were in a comatose state. You didn't shown any form of bodily harm - it was unknown what was causing you to remain in such a state. Everything in your body seemed to be functioning normally. It wasn't until Kiyoko went to check for a head injury that she noticed what seemed, to her, to be slight disruptions in the chakra there. Due to the… sensitive nature of your case, I was brought in to give my aid."  
Sensitive nature.  
Upon closer inspection, I noted that I wasn't in Konoha hospital. The room, while brightly lit and painted a blinding white, had no windows in its walls, the area far too bare to be a normal hospital room. In an effort to establish my location I went to feel out with my chakra senses only to find that they weren't functioning.  
"My chakra senses do not work," I informed him, my lips twisting.  
"No, I expect not," he said. "They're tied to your yin chakra. You see, the damage done to your yin chakra seems to be more than just 'slight'. Frankly I'm a bit surprised you're alive."  
"Ah," I said. A new spark jumped at his words, something harsher and more primal - it was still easily ignored, though.  
Both of their gazes weighed on me heavily. I got the impression that that was not the reaction they had hoped for. Vaguely I was aware, as well, that it was not quite the reaction I should be having.  
"The disruption to your yin chakra was… extreme, to put it lightly. Your chakra was fractured like I've never seen before." Inoichi leant forward in his seat. "I've been doing what I can but your chakra isn't cooperating. With my family's technique I am able to form a connection to yin chakra. The hope was that I could establish this connection and try to coax your chakra into reforming. Yet your chakra is adamantly resisting the connection. Even in a comatose state, it gave a pretty powerful push back."  
"Really?" Kiyoko asked.  
"Yes. It was a bit unexpected," he said. He scratched the back of his neck. "Then again, her yin chakra is unlike anyone's I've ever encountered. The closest to it is the Nara's yin chakra, but even then it's not really that close."  
The fact that my yin chakra varied from the typical shouldn't have been out of left field for me, but it was.  
I was well aware that it was a possibility - having a distinct yin chakra wasn't entirely uncommon. Just in Konoha, there were three clans that had specialized yin chakra: the Kurama's, the Nara's, and the Yamanaka's. It's part of what made clan technique's just that. They were secret techniques and in theory anybody could learn to do them but the clans had, over generations, adapted to better make use of them. Each generation was stronger than the last.  
Truly, it had never occurred to me that I could have specialized chakra. It did make sense though. It would explain, at least partially, my ridiculous struggles with all things genjutsu - if my yin chakra was clan based, there was a good chance that the Kurosawa's had simply become so adapted to a specific type of genjutsu that their yin chakra evolved to the point where that's all it's suited for. It was kind of like trying to put a key in a lock that it's not fitted for. You might get the key part of the way in, get the lock to start to turn, but it won't open a door it's not made for unless you force the door open. I could make my chakra conform and function with the genjutsu I wanted, but I would never get it to turn out as well as most.  
"Will her chakra reform on its own?" she asked.  
"Most likely. Though with her awake and willing able to aid in the process, it's possible I could get a connection and speed the healing along. Given how far she's come on her own in the last week, with the extra help I could have her back to her normal in as soon as a week."  
Kiyoko turned a critical eye to me. "She'll be stuck here until we can ensure she's recovered entirely."  
"Getting out of this setting might make things easier," Inoichi said.  
"Doesn't matter," the woman answered. "She's a potential security hazard."  
"She's thirteen."  
"A thirteen year old who just had an encounter with an S-rank criminal organization where nobody knows what went on except her."  
"Kiyoko - "  
"Inoichi, you and I both know this won't be up for debate." She gave a sharp shake of her head. "You were called in for your assistance, and it's appreciated, don't get me wrong, but we can't budge on the security measures being taken."  
The man's eyes narrowed. "I am a high ranking member of the Intelligence Division. I have sway in the type of security being taken."  
The woman scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest and tapping her foot. "Not when it comes to ANBU you don't," Kiyoko said. "Go take it up with Tiger if you've got an issue because talking to me is a waste of breath. I wanted her in the Konoha hospital to begin with but Tiger insisted she stay here so she stays here."  
"Tiger doesn't listen to anybody," Inoichi sighed. "When she makes up her mind that's that."  
"She doesn't listen to anybody because she's almost always right," Kiyoko answered.  
He regarded her with a faint smile. "Still not over your hero-worship, huh?"  
Kiyoko rolled her eyes but her cheeks flushed. "I respect Tiger as the great kunoichi that she is, that's all."  
Inoichi chuckled but dropped the subject.  
His attention returned to me and he slipped back into his professional demeanor. He pressed his two hands together, palm against palm, letting his elbows rest on his knees and setting his fingers against his lips. A thinking pose maybe. It reminded me of Shikamaru when he was puzzling over a particularly interesting problem.  
"You likely feel a bit out of sorts, am I correct?"  
I nodded. My hand went to my belly again. "I… feel wrong."  
"Your emotions are dampened. They're there, I can tell that much, but your ability to recognize emotion is impaired, I think. Imagine a television with a DVD player plugged into it," he said. Kiyoko snorted at his metaphor and he sent her a look. "You can turn both on and have them functioning properly, but if the DVD player is unplugged from the TV it obviously isn't going to display the movie. Plug in one cord, you'll get part of the input but not all of it. All of the cords need to be plugged in to get the full picture. I believe that's what's happening with your emotions - the cord isn't plugged in. With the state of your yin chakra right now, you're incapable of recognizing them."  
"Do you think that could be a lasting side effect from this?" Kiyoko asked.  
I understood why she was asking.  
As a infiltration specialist in training, I was required to have a very strong recognition of emotion. Being emotionless wasn't a problem, per se, but not being to read other people's would definitely be an issue. I needed to blend in when I was undercover. Not being capable of properly reacting in a social situation - or at least being able to act like I knew what I was doing - would make that near impossible.  
"It's unlikely," Inoichi said slowly. "Once we reconnect the cord - sticking with the same analogy - her emotions ought to click back into place without much delay."  
"What about her memory?"  
"That's… a bit different. Her older memories that are more established in her mind are probably safe, but the actual encounter and the days leading up to it might have permanent gaps in them," he said. "Entire days could have been lost."  
"But you can't say for sure."  
"It's too soon," he said. "I'm hopeful given the fact that she even woke up again. Her yin chakra, though, is unfamiliar and so far been finicky with me."  
"Better than nothing," Kiyoko said. She turned to look at me and lit her hands with the minty green healing chakra. "I'm going to check your head out and just get a feel for what's going on up there, okay?"  
I nodded.  
She hummed for a few minutes as she inspected my head. The two of them exchanged a few more words but none of them were of any importance. I was no longer paying them any attention. After she finished on my head, Kiyoko did a once over on the rest of my body's basic functions. She checked my pulse, listened to my heartbeat, and flashed a light in my eyes that had me blinking away spots even after she had left.  
Inoichi stayed behind.  
"I want you to tell me how much you can remember from your encounter," he said.  
The memories of the interaction were fuzzy. I explained what went on, as well as I could, but all that I really had left were fragments of the encounter. The general idea of what happened was there; I could easily inform him of the boy's general appearance, the way he had kept me from sensing him and that I believed he controlled my body's chakra, the general chain of events that occurred. The real cause of trouble were the gaps. The fragments of memories that I had of the day were in a comprehensible order, but the dialogue was cut up, and a few of the details were eluding me.  
How long did the encounter last?  
How far away was my squad?  
Was the boy wearing any jewelry?  
Did he have any tattoos or piercings for easy identification?  
When Inoichi was satisfied with his attempts to breach the memory, he moved on to trying to get a connection with my yin chakra.  
He scooted his chair a bit closer to the bed. "You may feel something of a… pressure, in your head," he said. "I won't be trying to actually enter your mind, just connect with it. There's nothing you need to do except keep yourself from resisting."  
"I understand."  
He dipped his head and at first I thought it was in a nod but when his chin didn't come back up I realized he'd started the technique. His hands moved into the seal of the Yamanaka's infamous clan jutsu and I waited. Seconds passed, then minutes, and I sat there silently, waiting. The more time that passed by the tighter the muscles in his face contracted, the sharper the tension in his shoulders grew.  
I didn't feel any kind of pressure; I wasn't resisting his attempts at forming a connection because there was nothing to resist.  
After five minutes Inoichi seemed to deflate, opening his eyes and heaving a sigh. I stared at him blankly.  
"Your chakra seems to have only grown more defiant now that you're awake," he said.  
"I did not resist."  
"I know," he said. "It's your chakra, not you. Though I suppose, in this case, technically you are your chakra." His lips quirked, eyes flashing with emotion and I blinked at him. My lack of reaction gave him cause to sigh and shake his head, mumbling a few words I didn't catch.  
We went a little longer. The memories we could easily identify as being affected stretched back three days, including the day of the incident itself. The closer to the incident that the memory was, the less I could recall of it. After an hour or so, my skull began to pound from the stress being put on my mind, and Inoichi decided to call it a day, leaving me with a promise that he'd be back the next day.  
.-.-.  
I spent the following days laying in bed. Everyday, I received a visit from Inoichi and Kiyoko respectively. Kiyoko would check my vitals and brain to make sure there was no damage being done to it. Inoichi would visit later on in the day after I had been cleared, continuing to try and make a connection to my chakra. It seemed that the more time passed, the further my chakra was able to heal itself, and the more it would resist the connection. However there did not seem to be any type of change with my condition.  
On my fourth day, Inoichi brought me a book to read from his medicinal library, claiming that I must have been 'bored out of my mind'. I wasn't. That was the rather useful thing of having my yin chakra in it's state of disarray - my mind was so busy trying to sort itself out that it didn't seem to require any outside stimulus. I would lose track of the time, having hours pass by me in what felt like seconds, completely unaware of my surroundings.  
Kiyoko was quick to point out that that was another reason I was being kept somewhere I was easily monitored. They were treating me like I had a head injury in that respect. Turns out, surviving this level of chakra disruption was a bit of a new thing in the medical word. In most cases somebody would simply fall into a coma and stay there. Even when they did wake up, though, they'd then spend most of their time as a vegetable, never regaining their full mental awareness.  
I showed no improvement as the days went on. Though I didn't need the mental stimulus, having it was better than nothing. Inoichi continued to supply the reading materials at a steady rate, making offhanded comments about the slight struggle he went through given how quickly I was devouring the books. I had a single-minded devotion to reading; while I was awake it was all I'd do. From the minute I opened my eyes in the morning to the point in which I'd fall asleep I'd read. Aside from the visits that Kiyoko and Inoichi paid me, the only breaks I'd take were to use the washroom or eat. That was, until my seventh day.  
There was a knock on my door. Just like clockwork, as per usual. Kiyoko had been in only a short time before, meaning that there was only one person who could be waiting outside of my room.  
"Good afternoon, Kasumi," Inoichi greeted as he strolled through the door.  
I inclined my head. "Hello."  
"How are you feeling?"  
"The same."  
"Any changes with your memory?"  
"No."  
It was the same start everyday. Him specifically inquiring on the status of my memory following the gifting of the reading materials led me to believe that the addition of books to my otherwise barren day was out of a desire to see how, if at all, the stimulus would kickstart my chakra flow, rather than entertaining me. It may have been a bit of both, as well. Frankly I didn't care much either way. The material wasn't sticking with my mind in the way it usually did.  
When I read, my mind stored it in one of two ways, depending on how I took in the material. If I actually read through what I wanted to learn, I'd be able to call on the information offhandedly, which was why I preferred to do it this way. In a rush, however, I could simply take a mental picture of the information in front of me and recall the exact image at a later date, at which point I'd then be able to actually read what was contained on the page. Either way, I had to actually read the information, whether I did it by memory or not was merely dependent on the situation.  
"As expected," Inoichi said, settling himself down in the seat at my bedside.  
"Yes."  
The rest of the session progressed in silence. Inoichi's posture would slowly but surely tighten as he strained his chakra to attempt at a connection that wouldn't come. I didn't feel even a hint of another's chakra trying to make contact with my own, though that could be attributed to the dampening of my chakra senses. I didn't ponder on it much.  
My gaze remained impassive as I stared forward, sitting still with my hands in my lap and letting my mind blank out as Inoichi often requested I do. I didn't know exactly how long passed when I finally felt it.  
A small prick at the back of my mind.  
I almost didn't register it, but it continued, a light tapping on the edge of my consciousness that persistently grew stronger. Not strong enough that I would have registered it if I wasn't waiting for it, but it didn't have to be. Hell, it may have been better if I hadn't been cognizant of it as that way I couldn't resist, even unintentionally.  
But I had been paying attention and I did notice it. My head tipped to the side instinctually, and I said, "I believe I felt something."  
Inoichi went ramrod straight. "Don't fight it."  
I didn't.  
The force behind the contact grew stronger until it was like he was knocking on the door of my mind, asking permission to connect that I willingly gave. As he had promised earlier, Inoichi made no attempts to enter my mind. I felt a pull here, a tug there, as the man's eyes slipped shut and his shoulders became wrought with tension, the meticulous actions requiring a great deal of concentration.  
It was as if my chakra was a jigsaw puzzle and he was trying to stick the pieces back together. The sensation of having my chakra shifted around was unnerving and familiar in a way that instinctually put me on edge, threatening to send my hackles up. Inoichi took in a sharp inhalation, jolting in his seat.  
"Whatever you're thinking, don't," he said. "Calm your mind."  
"I am calm," I replied.  
I was incapable of being anything other than calm.  
But I did as he said, cutting away the thoughts lingering in my mind. His posture relaxed some.  
Another few minutes passed by without incident. I stared forward, letting my head lean back against the headboard, blankly staring at the spotless white walls across from my bed.  
Then, suddenly, something in my mind clicked, and the world around me regained its vibrant colours. I started at the onslaught of sensations, my hands involuntarily grabbing at the blanket that lay over my lower half, eyes going wide.  
My chakra senses lashed out the second they were restored to me, like a bird stretching its wings for the first time after breaking them. I wrestled them off, but there was still that residual level of sense that was always there no matter what I did. It was a stark reminder of exactly how much of the passive aspects of my senses my body had begun to tune out. Even just passively, my range was pushing in around half a kilometer; going from a complete lack in awareness of my surroundings to knowing every chakra-enhanced detail within half a kilometer was a shock to the system. My tuning out some of the passive ability was not without reason though, considering being too aware for too long lead to a guaranteed bout of overload.  
Then there was the wave of emotions that hit me like a brick-wall.  
The most potent of all was the fear.  
Without my senses, I had been wholly unaware of the sensation that came with having somebody else's chakra coming into direct contact like this. In my unconscious, where my emotions had been shoved to, fear had been simmering as my body recognized the contact on an instinctual level. Now though, with my senses extending to their full capabilities, I could sense Inoichi's chakra curling and weaving itself around my own still somewhat delicate chakra. I knew that he meant me no harm. I knew that the hold he had on my chakra was intended to be guiding rather than restrictive. Yet that rationality did nothing to quell the fear in my gut as it roared to life, consuming my instincts in a blazing inferno.  
No, no, no! Not again, not again!  
Let go!  
You can't hold me, not again!  
Likely able to gauge my thoughts to a certain extent, Inoichi hastily retracted himself from my mind just as I blindly yanked back on my chakra in an attempt to sever the connection. I scrambled away from him, feeling myself tumble off the bed as I fought to banish the image of a messy haired boy with unnervingly amused eyes from my mind.  
The door to the room burst open and I was vaguely aware of at least one other person entering the room. I ignored them in favor of reigning in the chaos that was my thoughts.  
My chest was heaving from the panicked breaths I didn't even realize I was taking.  
" - happened?"  
" - can you hear me?"  
The two voices entered my ears at the same time.  
Consciously, I forced my breathing to slow, knowing that my racing heart rate would quickly follow.  
"It's alright," I forced myself to mutter. "I'm alright."  
Inoichi appeared in my peripheral, hands held in front of him like he was approaching a startled animal. "Kasumi?"  
I closed my eyes tightly, swallowing hard. "I'm alright," I repeated.  
"Are you certain?" He appeared skeptical.  
"Yes," I said. Somehow, I'd ended up with my back against one of the walls of the room, hands braced on the ground. "You just… everything at once. It startled me, that's all."  
"It can be a lot to take in at once," Inoichi said, his tone carefully neutral.  
He waved a hand and another man entered my line of sight, though this one was wearing an ANBU mask and had a signature that was unfamiliar to me. I forcefully kept myself from curling inwards.  
I'm safe here.  
Relax.  
I took a deep breath in, letting it again through my nose. After a colossal freakout like that, he at least earned an explanation. "Your chakra containing mine took me off guard. I hadn't been able to feel what you were doing before," I explained. "Whatever part of my chakra you restored flow to restored them at the same time as it restored my emotions."  
His eyebrows knit as he processed my words, then something clicked in his mind and his expression softened. "You thought it was restraining your chakra like what that boy did."  
"I know you wouldn't do anything to harm me - " I blurted out, but he held up a hand before I completed the sentiment.  
"I should have known better," he countered. "I should have pulled back the second I recognized that your emotions had come back to you."  
The ANBU agent held his place in my sight but far back enough to make it clear he wasn't a threat to me. The boar mask wasn't one I had encountered or heard anything about yet. Say what you will about ANBU, but they at least tend to understand better than anybody how to handle somebody who's panicking, if not out of experience than out of training.  
I let out an uneasy breath and got to my feet, stumbling back into my bed. Boar dutifully took a couple of steps towards me but held his distance.  
"I'm better," I insisted, forcing my voice to come out steady. "Seriously, it was just a knee-jerk reaction."  
Inoichi hummed, plainly unconvinced. "If I try to reconnect to your chakra so I can try and restore more of your chakra's flow, is it going to invoke the same reaction?"  
My lips turned down. "Probably to a certain extent," I admitted. "But I'll be ready for it so I can control it."  
"No need to risk further emotional trauma - that'll just do more harm than good, further disrupt your chakra. The important aspects are back in working order. If I could continue on, that'd speed things up, but right now it'll be fine if we allow your chakra to take care of the rest on its own," he said.  
Inoichi gave a short nod to Boar who didn't waste any time in removing himself from the situation. My heart had finally settled down to a normal rate and the adrenaline that had pounded in my veins was entirely drained out at this point. Inoichi however kept to his word and after doing a short external check of my chakra left me to my own devices. He had promised that, if Kiyoko cleared it, I would be released from the facility the next day.  
A facility that, as I figured, was not a regular hospital. It was an ANBU run and designed zone that served to house more sensitive medical cases. Just a short gander of the surrounding signatures made it clear that most - if not all - of the people currently in the building were ANBU members, given away by the specific method most ANBU were trained to use to reel in their chakra so it gave off a more subdued signature. It was a subtle technique that most began to do almost unconsciously, even Kakashi-sensei at times.  
Regardless of why I was in the building, having a multitude of ANBU kicking around was more than enough to soothe any residual hints of panic that were sticking in my chest. Settling back in my bed I picked up the book I had been reading, reopening it to the first page and letting the medical jargon consume my mind.  
.-.-.  
I ended up spending most of the night reading. Along with my emotions my nightmares had come back fullforce, haunting my rest and only allowing me a few hours worth of sleep in short bursts. Rather than waste time tossing and turning in bed I stayed up reading the books that were left at my bedside.  
In the morning, just like Inoichi had promised Kiyoko stopped by and did a very short check-up on my general health.  
"Everything looks to be in working order," she said. "You're in the clear little hime."  
I didn't bother reacting to the nickname - by this point, I was resigned to my fate of being known as 'little hime'. "Thank fuck," I mumbled.  
She rolled her eyes, giving off a distinctly miffed air. Whether it was from the blatant swearing or lack of reaction at the nickname, I wasn't sure, but she swatted me with the clipboard and said, "Get out of here, you brat."  
I did so. I was given a set of simple black clothes to walk out with since ANBU gear wasn't exactly appropriate for travelling around the village when off-duty. I was informed that upon moving into my apartment I'd find my uniform waiting for me - a subtle hint if I'd ever heard one.  
On my way out she Kiyoko also handed me a sticky note that Maen had asked her to pass on to me. It contained a short little message on it. Along the top was an address - my new address, the one where my uniform now resided and I was expected to move into as soon as I had a spare moment. Beneath it were instructions to meet him at one of the training grounds within the complex tomorrow evening.  
Man, he wasted no time there.  
Rolling my eyes I sighed, choosing to just accept it and move on. If Kiyoko thought it was acceptable for me to go and do whatever it was he had planned then it was probably fine.  
Probably.  
Besides, I wanted to talk to Maen. I wanted to know what happened after I was unconscious. Clearly they had found me and brought me back, but what else had occurred? Had there been a fight? Had Itachi and Haruo just left? Considering Jiraiya had been enough to deter Itachi from going after Naruto before, I assumed that this situation would be no different - except this time, Jiraiya was there before anything could happen. The small, optimistic bit of me hoped that meant the entire shitstorm had been avoided, but I tried to reel in the emotions.  
Just like I tried force myself to keep my senses shut as I walked past the Konoha general hospital where I knew an comatose Kakashi-sensei was being kept.  
Inoichi had warned me to avoid any emotional disturbances, after all.  
Much to my surprise mama and papa were waiting for me when I got home. The second I opened the front door I felt mama's signature jolt up, rushing towards me with terrifying vigor. I cringed, kicking my shoes off and closing the door behind me, preparing myself for the rush of questions I was bound to be swamped with.  
The second mama was within arms reach she gathered me in a suffocating hug. The sudden action and constricting force behind it had me shoving down an irrational surge of panic that I was slightly ashamed even managed to bubble to life. I forced myself to return the hug, burying my face in her shoulder and hoping that this sudden fear of contact wasn't going to stick around for long.  
Papa followed suit, pulling me into his arms the second mama let me go, albeit more gently and with less urgency. That was the kind of hug I could handle right then. I stayed in his embrace for a moment, breathing in the safe scent of home before I finally let go with a sigh, taking a step back.  
"Your mission went well, then?" mama asked, her eyes roaming up and down my body. The lack of any external injuries seem to satisfy her, but when her gaze landed on my face her brows furrowed.  
I forced a smile. "Nothing to worry about, mama - classified stuff, the usual."  
She frowned, looking ready to protest, but papa placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled. "I wouldn't expect anything less from my little ninja," he said, cutting her off before she could start.  
The smile became more natural at his intervention. "'Course, papa."  
Mama let out a sigh but thankfully dropped the subject there. There was a chance she'd try again later on in the evening, when papa wasn't there to interrupt the conversation, but I still didn't plan on saying anything. I wasn't confident enough in my ability to lie to them to try and use the cover story I'd been given.  
Upon my release from the hospital, I'd been given the cover story that the week I'd spent in the hospital had actually been a mission. I'd been tapped early in the morning and sent out immediately, on a C-rank courier mission. My name would be added to the logs at a later date to solidify the cover and the mission would be added to my records. I was told that if I desired, I could just pull the bullshit classified excuse if I felt it'd be more effective - any shinobi knew that if somebody said something was classified, that was the end of that. Jokingly going for it was one thing but nobody would seriously probe too far after being told the information they wanted was classified.  
Besides, it was mostly true - the whole situation with Akatsuki had been deemed S-rank and above the pay grade of pretty much anybody who would care enough to ask.  
The three of us sat down for lunch at the table. Mama and papa said that they had the morning off of working in the restaurant, though both of them would be needed later in the evening when the dinner rush hit.  
I cleared my throat awkwardly, setting down my fork and forcing myself to look up at mama and papa. "So uhm… my apartment is open and waiting for me," I said.  
The note was about the least subtle hint possible that with my chakra being righted I was expected to jump straight back into my role as an ANBU member. Whether the fact that my team was currently in pieces also had an effect on their desires to get me back into the role I wasn't sure. Either way, I assumed my ANBU training regiment was finally kicking off tomorrow, so I'd rather be fully settled before all of that started.  
Mama stiffened. "Now?"  
"Yeah," I said. "Like I said, the place is fully furnished for me and they prefer I don't just let it sit empty, ya kno'?"  
"You just got home," she said with pursed lips.  
To my surprise, papa put a hand over hers and nodded. "Are you sure it can't wait until tomorrow Kasu?"  
I nodded. "Very. The requested that I move in tonight when they saw me." They went to protest but I shook my head. "It's not like I can't come for dinner tomorrow, and stuff, but it'll take me time to settle in, and I want to get started."  
They shared a look.  
"Sweetie," mama began carefully. "This whole… moving out thing. It's not because of me, is it?"  
My heart clenched uncomfortably, my mouth going dry. "Mama?"  
"I know that I'm… not always the most supportive in your… shinobi career. I get that papa and I are civilians, and we can never truly understand what you're doing - "  
"No," I said firmly. "That's not it, mama. I meant it when I said it's because of my promotion and safety and all that."  
She looked doubtful but let the topic end there. I hoped my vehemence would be enough to convince her, but I knew mama, and while she may not have been the woman to birth me, she had certainly bestowed her mule-worthy stubbornness onto me. This conversation would not die today, not if mama had anything to say about it.  
Regardless, once lunch had been cleaned up off of the table mama and papa had gone with me and helped pack up my clothes and other personal belongings. I may have had relatively few sets of clothing, due to my sadly destructive nature, but I had an to worry about packing up all of my shinobi gear. Mama and papa left all of that to me - they went up to my room and took care of the non-lethal objects, occasionally shouting down to me when they were unsure.  
Stripping down my lovely nook was heartbreaking. I painstakingly packed every vial carefully into the boxes, compiling the various selections of coated kunai and stashing them according to both size and the type of poison they had washed over their blade. Mama and papa joked that I was too meticulous, but I beg to differ - trying to what had what on it if they got mixed together would be a complete pain in the ass. With the methodical methods that I used to pack them, that wouldn't be a worry for me. In my nook, I had everything perfectly labelled and arranged. Damn was I going to miss that.  
I had no idea what my new apartment was going to be like but I could sure as hell guarantee it wouldn't have a hiding spot that'd stack up to this. Unless, of course, I had it installed myself.  
I made a mental note to look into that when I had some time on my hands.  
After a few hours, mama and papa had gotten my room cleaned out. Papa, much to both mama's and my dismay, let the box of books thud down the stairs, a choice that ended off with the entire box breaking and its contents forming a massive heap.  
"My novels!"  
"My hardwood!"  
Thankfully, nothing besides papa's head was harmed in the aftermath of such a travesty.  
By the end of it all, a mass of boxes - many of which comprised entirely of shinobi gear - sat waiting in front of the door for me to haul off. My room hadn't been stripped entirely bare, as there was still stuff left behind for the days I chose to stay overnight, a suggestion on mama's part that I didn't have the heart to shoot down. I was already well aware I wouldn't be spending any nights in this house so long as I was on active duty in ANBU.  
I turned to smile at mama and papa. We'd finished just as the supervisor over at the restaurant had made an urgent request for assistance.  
"I'll be by tomorrow for dinner, yeah?"  
"And don't you forget it!" mama snapped. "If I have to march all the way through that complex to haul you here you'll regret it!"  
"Yes mama," I laughed. "Of course."  
"Now give your mama a hug," she instructed.  
This time when she pulled me into a tight hug the small spark of panic at the confinement was easily ignored. My reciprocation of the hug was entirely sincere. I repeated the process with papa before the two of them dashed off, leaving me to deal with my stuff.  
.-.-.  
"I don't see why we're even here," Shika groaned, staring at the boxes in the entryway with a distinct air of distaste.  
"Because it'll take me forever to get these to the complex and then unload them all myself," I said for what felt like the twentieth time.  
Ino smacked him upside the head. "Stop being such a baby, Shikamaru."  
"Yeah, stop being such a baby," I mimicked, sticking my tongue out at him for good measure.  
He rolled his eyes at me. "Whatever."  
"I don't mind helping," Cho piped up. "I can have enough enthusiasm for the both of us."  
After mama and papa left I came to the realization that it would take absolutely forever for me to haul all of this stuff across the village. I didn't have any storage scrolls on hand that would be able to hold them all and I didn't feel like going out and buying some just for this. So instead I'd recruited Shika and Cho. They'd been at training when I'd found them, and Ino, interested to see my apartment ( "Seriously, Kasumi, somebody with decent taste in design should be there, just to make sure everything in order!" ) had tagged along with us. I didn't protest - the more people, the faster I'd have all of the boxes emptied and could be on my way. They were done with training for the day, meaning they'd volunteered - or been annoyed into it, same difference - to help me move in.  
"This is such a pain."  
"You'll live."  
With all of us loaded up on boxes, we just manage to carry all of it.  
The trip across the village was uneventful. The three of them kept themselves occupied with bickering and I let it wash over me, thankful for a dose of normality that I was long overdue for. It'd been a chaotic past few weeks. Hell, just remembering it'd only been two weeks since the invasion felt like an impossibility. So much had happened in such a short span that it made my head spin.  
The complex itself, upon entrance, held no real surprises. It sat right at the edge of the village walls, four sizeable buildings in a square formation, with a large training ground settled in the center, three others smaller ones nestled behind the buildings to allow for more privacy. A fleeting survey of the signatures around me was enough to be absolutely certain that while not everybody in the complex was an ANBU operative, everybody in the complex was certainly a shinobi. Though that was obvious enough on its own - no civilian in their right mind would want to live here.  
The entire thing screamed shinobi, from the high walls around its perimeter for privacy to the tiny windows that sparsely dotted the outside of the buildings.  
Ino frowned. "This place looks so… boring!"  
She gave the same declaration when she got her first look at the apartment.  
It was bigger than I had expected. A decent sized bedroom, a full sized bathroom, kitchen, living room, and separate dining room. The fact that it was empty save the most basic furniture likely helped make it feel larger than it was, though. As I took the first walkthrough of it I made a short list of all the things I was going to have to pick up either tonight or some time in the next few days. I knew, tonight at least, I had to go out and get some basic groceries so I wouldn't have an empty fridge, a few other things to get while there wouldn't be that big of a deal. I wasn't exactly hurting for cash at the moment.  
After having the paycheck from two A-ranks and an S-rank, I had enough money to pick up more than just the basics. That was one of the few major draws of ANBU - most of what you did was dangerous enough that you were paid handsomely for your time.  
"You have too much stuff," Shika complained.  
"She needs it," Ino scoffed. "This place is drab."  
"It's nice. I don't need something big and extravagant," I said.  
"Just because you don't need it doesn't mean you shouldn't at least try," she said. "Come on! Some new curtains, a few nice cushions for this ugly couch, a nice lamp… oh, and flowers! Lots of flowers."  
I snorted. "Whatever, Ino."  
She puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't you whatever me, missy! We're going shopping."  
"I was planning on grabbing groceries tonight, we can stop by some stores and see what's there if you want," I offered.  
"That's settled, then!" she said. Then she whipped around, sending the boys a frosty glare that had both of them shrinking away. "And you're both coming!"  
"What? Why?" Shika asked in a yelp.  
"Are you really sure that's necessary, Ino?" Cho asked the same time.  
"Yes!" she cried. "We'll need you two to help us carry everything."  
"We probably won't be getting that much," I cut in. "But, if it makes things any better, I'll buy all of us dinner."  
Cho brightened up instantly. "You can count me in!"  
Shika just let out a pathetic moan. "I have no choice, do I?"  
"Nope!" Ino chirped.  
So we did just that. We spent a couple of hours pulling everything out from the boxes and setting it out. There were two closets in the bedroom, a large walk-in and then a smaller utility-esque closet - much to Ino's dismay, I used the walk-in closet for all of my shinobi gear and the smaller one for my clothing. It wasn't anywhere as nice as my nook from mama and papa's house, but it was better than nothing.  
The bedroom, though, would need the most work, I could tell that much.  
It was literally a bed. That was it. The walls were vacant, there was no other furniture in the room, the mattress left entirely bare. Ino actually screamed when she entered it. It would have been hilarious if I didn't have vaguely the same feelings towards it.  
When none of us could handle anymore unpacking, we hit the streets. Dinnertime was fast approaching and since all three had taken the time to make sure they weren't wanted at home for the rest of the night, we actually went to a restaurant rather than just grab something from a vender. Cho lead us a through the shinobi parts of the village to an Akimichi restaurant with the promise of a discount and better food than anywhere else. I was hard-pressed to argue as in most cases, the Akimichi restaurants were the best you were going to get in the shinobi areas.  
We walked through the doors and out of habit I let my senses open, feeling out the patrons of the restaurant curiously. Mostly shinobi with the odd civilian family scattered around. There was one particular group of shinobi, however, who caught my attention, and I took a sudden turn in their direction, leading our little group over to them.  
Kiba turned to give us a sharp grin as we approached. "Well, well, look who we have here."  
"Mind if we join you?" I asked, posing the question to Hinata and Shino as well as Kiba.  
"O-of course!" Hinata squeaked.  
Shino gave a solemn nod and said, "I do not have any issue with it."  
Ino didn't seem thrilled with the prospect but after a few seconds she shrugged and planted her butt down beside Hinata, engaging the girl in a rather one-sided conversation. Cho was a bit more enthused and said, "Hey, I can get us a better discount if we all order together!"  
"Hell if I care," Kiba said.  
I sat down next to him and shot a grin at Shika who shoved his hands in his pockets with a resigned, "Troublesome."  
With that settled, I said, "Since we're disrupting, I'll pay for your guy's dinner too, if you want."  
"You d-don't n-need-d to!" Hinata said.  
Kiba just rolled his eyes and said, "Sure, if you want."  
"That is acceptable," Shino said as well.  
Hinata flushed but seemed to realize she was outvoted as she nodded her consent. "I w-will still h-help pa-ay some, if y-you don't m-mind."  
I couldn't help but smile. "If that'll make you feel better."  
Shika snorted. "She's buying our help," he drawled.  
"And celebrating!" Ino piped in.  
"Celebrating?"  
"Kasumi's promotion!" Ino exclaimed. "First of our class to make chunin!"  
As we had been unpacking my clothes, Ino had come across my flak jacket and nearly strangled me with it for not telling her I'd gotten promoted. Cho and Shika both just smiled and congratulated me, a sentiment Ino also extended to me after she'd gotten over being pissy. It was part of why we'd ended up in a restaurant, as well. They'd offered to pay, since I was the one who had gotten promoted and all, but I shrugged them off.  
"Wait, what?" Kiba crowed. "How the fuck did you manage that?"  
"Field promotion," I said. "For leading the mission in the invasion."  
And so I could join ANBU, but you don't need to know that.  
"Huh. Well, congrats," he said.  
"Indeed. Congratulations," Shino said.  
"Th-that's wonderful!" Hinata added.  
I grinned. "Thanks."  
The rest of the meal went on much like that. We were excited, rowdy, and almost certainly disrupting everybody in the surrounding tables. The dirty looks we garnered were well worth it, though. It was a few hours where everything else going on seemed to just fade away and I was grateful for it. This day was, by far, the most relaxing day I'd had in ages, a much needed and appreciated experience.  
Hinata did end up pitching in a small portion of the price; she was too persistent for me to really try and fight that hard over it. Kiba laughed and called me weak. I didn't dispute that.  
Then the shopping began.  
Shopping with Ino was… interesting.  
The young Yamanaka was a hellion. I knew that going in, but nothing could have prepared me for the real thing. It's impossible to guess what'll come out of her mouth; I'd see something and be certain she'd have a criticism ready to sling at it only for her to gush over it. Shika and Cho were annoyingly calm about the whole thing. I assumed they'd been dragged along with her before, but I'd managed to weasel my way out of any shopping journeys with her before today. Regardless of how unorthodox her methods, they were there in among the madness.  
The whole affair took nearly three hours and it was long dark when our entourage dragged ourselves back to my apartment, but we were successful, all in all. I'd ordered a set of nightstands, a side table, and a couple of lamps; they were going to take a week or so before they were ready, as they were all being made to order. I'd also taken home with me a new set of sheets and a duvet for the bed along with some pillows for the admittedly hideous couch. Ino had tried to convince me to replace the couch entirely, but given how much of a hit my bank was taking already I'd firmly vetoed that idea, instead buying pillows and blankets to toss on top of it, covering the ugly rather than replacing it. The last stop had been groceries and the dishes I'd need to eat them on. We'd gone for the absolute basics, simple staple foods that I could easily make multiple meals with and a single set of plain white dishes.  
They were all wondering where I'd gotten the money to finance all of this. I brushed them off rather than admit the entire trip had barely put a dent in the payoff I got from completing my first S-rank mission.  
The three of them stayed long enough to help me unload everything before they scurried off, leaving me alone in the apartment.  
.-.-.  
I spent the entire next day finishing up the process of moving into the apartment. It didn't feel like home, by the time I had finished, though whether it ever really would was up in the air still, but it was close enough that I was able to relax for a couple of hours on the couch and read, letting my mind drift away. There was something of a safety I felt in the apartment that I had never quite gotten at mama and papa's house that brought an entirely sensation - at all times, I had shinobi next door.  
I hadn't been too surprised when the signature of Genma Shiranui drunkenly stumbled through his door at 8am. He'd already thrown out the hint that he'd be one of my neighbors. Sadao and Maen were on the fourth floor as well, each further down the hall, though Emi and Kiyoko both seemed to be a few levels above us on the seventh floor of the building while Hayate was down on the third floor.  
It was comforting, I suppose, knowing that my squad was always a chakra flare away in the case of an emergency.  
Part of me had wanted to go and visit Kakashi-sensei in the hospital but the reminder from Inoichi to keep the emotional stress to a minimum rang through my mind. It was one of those where, while I wanted to go and visit, the logical part of my brain reminded me that his condition would see no change until Tsunade returned, an event that was likely a few weeks away still. I would go visit. I knew I would, if only to keep from feeling guilty over not visiting, I'd just do it when I also wasn't worried about screwing up my yin chakra over it.  
I did drop by and have dinner with mama and papa that night. Mama had rather pointedly avoided the topic of my move, instead focusing on the restaurant and the goings on there as well as the odd question pointed towards the boys. Strained isn't quite the word I'd use to describe it, though it certainly didn't feel entirely comfortable and relaxed. Perhaps it's just different. A new dynamic that we'd all get used to. Or maybe it'd just be a sore spot for the next few years, it was impossible to tell with mama. They'd sent me home with a recipe book and a promise to come again within the next week so long as I didn't get sent on another mission.  
When the evening came I dropped out of my window and landed in the training ground behind the building, the one that Maen had asked me to go to. Our building was the further from the entrance. The training ground was situated between the building and the wall, allowing for a surprising amount of privacy.  
Maen wasn't the only one there, though - the entire squad was waiting on me.  
Genma grinned at me, senbon flicking around between his lips. "Ah, there's the little hime, gracing us with her presence."  
Maen promptly smacked him upside the head as Aoba smirked at the remark. Hayate rolled his eyes, but I could see a hint of amusement in his face as he turned his head towards me and gave a small nod.  
I gave a sarcastic bow. "It is my honour."  
That earned me a snort from both Maen and Genma.  
Sadao gave me a small smile and said, "It's good to see you're doing well, Kasumi."  
"Yeah, glad to see you didn't croak before I really got to meet you," Emi said, a cockeyed grin on her lips.  
Kiyoko rolled her eyes. "Ignore them. Come here, first, I want to see how you're doing," she said and beckoned me over with a short wave of the hand.  
She checked me over quickly, muttering to herself as she went.  
"What's the verdict?" Maen asked once she removed her hands from the sides of my head.  
"She's fine," Kiyoko answered. "She actually listened for once and didn't go off doing anything stupid."  
"Small miracles," Aoba said.  
"Hey, I'm not that bad!" I yelped indignantly.  
Aoba waved a hand dismissively. "That's what they all say."  
Maen regarded all of us with the look of a deeply disappointed parent. "I could have sworn I was given a squad of adults to oversee," he remarked dryly. His eyes stopped on me and his lips twisted upwards. "Well, mostly adults."  
I wanted to snipe back at him but found I had nothing to respond with that would actually sound convincing. Instead, I sighed, "Can we just get on with whatever it is we're doing here?"  
"Touchy, touchy," Maen tsked. "Fine. We're doing a short assessment of your combat skills so we can know what we're working with." He pointed a finger at me. "You especially."  
"Why me?"  
"Your sensei did a stupidly bad job of keeping your file updated combat wise," he said.  
Yeah, that sounds like Kakashi-sensei, Bane of the Desk Chunin and Avoider of Deadlines.  
"I'm not surprised," I muttered.  
At the mention of Kakashi-sensei, though, the air seemed to grow tense and awkward, Genma and Aoba exchanging glances.  
"Have you uh… been by the hospital recently?" Genma asked.  
"No emotional stress," Kiyoko instantly hissed and shot him a glare.  
"She's going to find out eventually," Genma answered, not the least bit perturbed.  
"I know he's in there," I said stiffly as a frown pulled my lips downward. "I haven't gone to visit, but I felt his chakra there."  
"Let's stay on topic," Maen said. That conversation ended there.  
Sadao was the first one they assessed.  
They had him go into the middle of the training ground and essentially just showcase what he could do. He started with a few simple taijutsu katas, displaying the slightly more advanced form of the Konoha standard, a little weak for what you'd typically see in a chunin. His knifework, however, turned out to be highly impressive. I was actually taken aback - I hadn't seen anybody that good aside from Asuma and Hayate, who was watching Sadao intently and with the dissecting eyes of somebody who was experienced in the field.  
Apparently satisfied that he'd given us enough of a show with the knives he spun them in his hands and holstered them, moving onto his ninjutsu skills. Those were definitely more on the average end of what one saw in a chunin. He demonstrated some C-rank fire jutsu and a single scorching B-rank that damn near burnt up half the training ground. I watched with my senses as he moved his fingers through the seals for the B-rank jutsu again, noting that he was losing a decent chunk of chakra on the execution - either he was still new to the jutsu or his control wasn't any good. I recognized that the answer lay somewhere in the middle when he moved back to C-rank jutsu and was still losing wisps of chakra, though it wasn't anywhere near as bad with the B-rank.  
I was wondering how an assassination specialist could work around fire jutsu when Genma asked, "How the hell are you going to transfer fire jutsu into an assassination situation?"  
"They're not exactly subtle," I commented.  
The boy blinked at us, his doe eyes making me wonder if that's where they'd gotten Deer from. "I have a few that are more subtle but really be showcased," he admitted, rubbing the nape of his neck with one hand.  
"Like?" Maen prompted.  
"I have the Fire Release: Burn Internal nearly mastered."  
"Yeah, that'll do it," Aoba said with a short laugh.  
"I'm guessing that does exactly what it sounds like it does?"  
"If you mean burn somebody from the inside out, then that's exactly what it does," Aoba said.  
"Ew," Emi muttered, her expression contorting in disgust.  
"Effective," Kiyoko corrected. "Burns the body and leaves zero evidence."  
Emi was the one who went next. She started with her taijutsu as well, but her kata were vastly different from Sadao's. The Konoha standard that he'd used focused mostly on sharp, strong attacks with a just as strong defense; it's split evenly so as to fit in nearly any situation that somebody could need it, but as a supplement rather than the entirety of somebody's skillset. Emi's was supplementary as well but it was more akin to my natural taijutsu style, focusing more on redirecting an enemy's blows rather than straight blocking them, moving with your opponent rather than around them. Her few offensive hits would have been aimed towards vitals and were short bursts that would, in theory, be too sudden and quick for an opponent to properly react before your fingers are shoved an inch deep into their kidney.  
There was a small water tap that Emi used when she moved onto her ninjutsu. Her ninjutsu was fairly weak, all things considered. Her control was good but it seemed she had much the same problem that I did in that her reserves weren't large enough to sustain a fully ninjutsu focused skillset. She showed off a few C-rank techniques before stopping and looking towards us.  
"I need a volunteer to show off my genjutsu," she said.  
Ah. Genjutsu focused skillset, then. Made sense - there was a reason most of the best genjutsu users were female, Uchiha men set aside. Women had smaller reserves than men which meant that nine times out of ten women had better control over their chakra. It was why I was able to garner as much control over my chakra as I had - there was so little of it that it was relatively easy to control. Emi was likely in the same boat. It'd sit well with her specialization, as well.  
Genma took a step forward. "Might as well be me. We haven't had a chance to really get into your genjutsu, anyways."  
Emi's grin turned feral. "Step right up, Genma."  
The demonstration was short and hilarious.  
It started tame, with Emi weaving an area illusion around the entire training ground, just to showcase that she could. I saw through it, as I did with all genjutsu, but Kiyoko and Maen both were impressed with her illusion, so that counted for something. Then Emi moved onto her single-target jutsus. Genma made a point of only partially resisting. He had to let her do it, just to see what he was working with, but he also needed to know how she handled herself against somebody who was fighting it.  
It seemed normal, Genma making a few offhanded comments every little bit. Then, there was a strangled noise that came out of his mouth, like somebody stepping on the tail of a cat, and I had somebody clapping their hands over my eyes. I flinched at the sudden contact but whoever it was held firm, refusing to let me see whatever was going on.  
"Oh," Sadao said from beside me. "Oh dear."  
Hayate sounded like he was choking on something.  
"Kami, Emi! Was that really necessary?" Aoba screeched. "My eyes!"  
"At least we know she's capable of doing her job," Maen mused.  
"Yeah well we didn't need to know here!" Kiyoko said, hand still over my eyes.  
Curiously, I opened up my senses, and watched Genma's signature shifting in… pleasure? Then I took note of the shape of the signature, and the…  
"Oh my fucking Kami she gave him an erection," I mumbled, a startled laugh erupting from my mouth.  
"You can't even see!" Kiyoko cried.  
"Chakra senses," I said. "Signatures take the shape of a human body, all anatomy included."  
"Genma break the fucking genjutsu!" Aoba shouted. "We don't need to see this!"  
"Ah, he can't hear you," Emi said, sounding torn between amusement and pride. "He's too caught up in the sounds of - "  
"Innocent ears and eyes!" Kiyoko shouted.  
I winced, rubbing at my poor ears.  
Maen sighed. "Alright, Emi. That's enough."  
"Spoilsport."  
There was some shuffling, followed by a sheepish set of coughs and shuffling.  
Kiyoko moved her hand away from my eyes and I turned to see Genma standing beside Maen, hand awkwardly held behind his head, cheeks flushed.  
"I'm surprised he has enough blood circulating up to his cheeks to blush," I said, the words tumbling from my mouth before I even had a chance to think about them.  
There was a short, stunned silence, broken only when Aoba let out a roaring laugh. Genma looked mighty uncomfortable hearing that out of the lips of a thirteen year old, giving me an odd look but choosing not to reply.  
Probably for the best.  
It was a couple of minutes before everything settled down and I was sent out to give my little demonstration.  
I was glad I'd dressed for training. I'd clipped on my belt, tessen holstered and slots filled with poisons, but I was also wearing my flak jacket which had enough pockets for even more poisons. I could take down a small army with the amount of shit I had on me.  
Just for the sake of showing exactly what I could do, I let the chakra out of my weights. I'd put them on expecting training but if I really wanted to show off I'd best do it without being held back.  
I started with taijutsu, as the other two had, but it was different for me. I didn't have one style that I relied on, or two, or even three. Kakashi-sensei, in not really knowing what to do with me, had shown me kata in nearly every style he knew and I few I suspected he'd had Guy show him. The result was that in the months since graduation, he'd shown me ten different taijutsu styles in varying levels of completion. Even then, I had a few more that I'd seen in the library and taught to myself, though I tended not to use those as often as they weren't anywhere near as effective as my others.  
It helped that my powerful memories had extended past just the mental aspect - my muscle memory was definitely unnaturally good. It could have just been an inclination towards taijutsu, but given the fact that Kakashi-sensei could show me a kata and I'd have it completely down the next week, I got the feeling there was more to it than that.  
I steadily ramped up my katas as I imagined an enemy in front of me, bobbing and weaving according to the style I was running through. I started at the Konoha Academy standard and ended off at the most recent style Kakashi-sensei had shown me, a flowing style that I assumed came from somewhere with Wind Country, involving both flexibility and speed that I could only fully take advantage of when I didn't have my weights active.  
When I'd individually shown each of them, I sped them up and started blending all of the styles together in the more natural way one did during combat. And I began blending in my bloodlimit. I flickered it on and off with my blows, carefully monitoring my chakra to make sure that I wasn't draining myself and wasn't further damaging my yin chakra. I kept it to a minimum just to be safe, but the point was rather to show that I can use it in combat when I need to.  
I came to a stop, but rather than start on my ninjutsu I pulled my tessen from their holster and flicked them open; the metallic chattering of the fans was a sound that I would never get sick of hearing. I noted that the second I pulled them out Hayate seemed exponentially more interested - he'd seen me use them sparingly during my fight in the tournament, but I hadn't been able to take advantage of them then.  
Now, though, it was just me and my invisible enemy. I wasn't at a disadvantage.  
I ran through everything I could think of that Tenten had ever shown to me with them. I was still very much an amateur with the weapons but my inclination to taijutsu meant I'd had a much easier time picking them up than somebody else would have. The sounds rang out as I folded them to strike and then instantly reopened them in a slash, twisting and spinning in a deadly dance. That was, really, how the katas ended up feeling. Like I was dancing. I was light on my toes, bending and moving with the wind, focused entirely on the movements. Then, like I did with my taijutsu, I started to blink in and out of sight, only holding the technique for a fraction of a second on each go.  
When I was satisfied I stopped, chest heaving and tessen hanging limply at my side.  
Maen was looking between me and the file in his hand, expression wholly annoyed. "It says here you only have three taijutsu styles to your name. That was not three."  
"'Only three' styles," Aoba muttered. "Like that's not a lot to begin with."  
Genma shot him a look. "Do you not have more than three?"  
"No!" Aoba cried. "If somebody can get past the fire and the crows then I'm dead anyways, I don't need that many taijutsu styles."  
"I only have two," Sadao offered.  
"We're changing that," Aoba said instantly. "Both of us. We'll learn together."  
"That sounds… youthful," I offered, unable to help myself.  
Aoba's face was horrified. "Don't you dare say that word."  
"What's wrong with that word?" Genma asked, the shit eating grin on his face making it clear he knew exactly what it was but wanted to ask anyways. "I find it's very… inspiring."  
"You shut up, you know exactly what's wrong with that word!"  
"I agree," I said. "It is very inspiring. Makes me think of Guy-sensei."  
"No!" Aoba cried in alarm. "I swear to Kami he'll just appear if he hears his name or that… that word!"  
"Yeah, fine, whatever," Genma scoffed.  
Seemingly mollified Aoba let out a sigh, though his chakra was still buzzing with energy.  
"How many taijutsu styles did you use?" Emi asked, ignoring the others and looking at me curiously. "I counted eight."  
"Ten," I said. "But I've modified most of them in some regards for combat use. Kakashi-sensei calls my taijutsu a 'vicious bastardization of about ten different styles'."  
"About?" Emi asked.  
"I've thrown a bit of others into the mix. Not enough that there's a full style of any, but enough that it's… sorta there."  
"Sadao we have serious work to do," Aoba muttered to the boy who nodded vigorously.  
"I'm going to give Hatake an earful for this, not that he'll care," Maen muttered sourly. "We're going to have to add a ton to your file."  
"Do you still want to see my ninjutsu?" I asked.  
"Do you have any?" Maen countered, eyes on the file. "It says that your reserves are too low to utilize ninjutsu in combat."  
"That's still mostly true," I amended. "But I have a few I use to spread poison and occasionally offensively."  
Maen pinched the bridge of his nose but said, "Might as well."  
I went through the basic ones I knew, then showed off the C-rank jutsus I'd actually practiced. Kakashi-sensei had shown me a few B-rank jutsus so I'd know them just in case, but I hadn't worked with them enough that I felt the need to include them. After that, I took a bit of time to show off my poisons, the part of my demonstration Kiyoko had shown the most interest in.  
When I had finished Maen rifled through our files some. Genma, Aoba, and Hayate spoke with him while Kiyoko stayed with me, chatting about poisons and medical stuff. Emi asked a few questions as well when it came to poisons, though mostly in regards to things that would render people unconscious or dazed rather than kill them.  
After ten minutes they finally came back over to where we were.  
"So we've discussed what needs to be worked on with you all among your mentors. Each of you have pretty different things to work on, so there will be relatively few squad training sessions per week," Maen said, still sounding cranky. "We will still have them, though, at least twice a week. But with you three, as long as you're getting done in your specialization what you need to get done I don't really give a shit how you do it."  
We broke off into our mentor groups and Kiyoko went back up to her room.  
Maen sighed. "Alright. How good is your henge?"  
Rather than reply I transformed into a perfect copy of him, complete with the crabby expression.  
The man scowled. "That's not what my face looks like."  
"It does look like this," I answered, using his voice. "Exactly like this."  
"Fine, whatever. You've got a capable henge. How much do you know about behaviour and psychology?"  
I shrugged. "Whatever we learnt in kunoichi classes."  
He jotted something down. "We're going to work on that, then."  
"Do you know what else?"  
"Probably just that," he said. "If you can make use of a henge properly in any situation you'll be fine in the field. You'll rarely need to trick anybody other than stupid civilians and rich nobles. Anybody else you'll have the option of just killing them to get them out of the way."  
"Seriously?" I asked, eyebrows raised.  
He nodded. "If we ever send you into a shinobi village, which we probably won't for at least a couple of years, you'll be able to just pull a little civilian act out of your ass rather than trying to actually trick them - in most cases, you just raise more alarms trying to use genjutsu or a henge to get into a shinobi village. Easier and safer to just bullshit it."  
I snorted. "Good to know."  
We talked a bit longer. Turns out, Inoichi had come to the same conclusion about my yin chakra in that it was probably the reason I had struggled so much with genjutsu. Maen had come to the decision that, then, it'd likely be a waste of time to pursue that further especially considering how little use it'd be in the field. It was good to have just in case, but it'd simply take too long and not be worth the effort.  
Thus, I'd be spending the foreseeable future having Maen teach me how to blend into any situation.  
I went to bed that night feeling both terrified and excited about what the next month had in store for me.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR  
.-.-.  
I stood on the side of the hospital wall, steeling myself for what I knew waited for me on the other side of it. Some of the passersby were giving me odd looks but by this point most knew to just ignore the shenanigans of shinobi.  
Deep breath in, deep breath out.  
I'd spent all day stalling. A few hours working in my little hut; curling up on my couch to further catch up on my reading; bugging the two boys I could easily locate; getting in a long-needed and relaxing solo-training session. Anything I could think of that would add a little time to my day and push away the inevitable—but I'd promised myself that I'd do it today. After the ANBU training a week ago, I'd put it off. I knew I had to go eventually. I did want to see him. That desire was just mingled with the dread of what I knew was waiting for me.  
Firmly nodding to myself I slid open the window and crawled inside. The chatter of the two men was silenced, both of them turning to look at me as I stood on the other side of the window and stared.  
Kakashi-sensei was one of the most powerful shinobi I'd ever encountered. As far as I was aware, I'd only met three people who were stronger than him: Jiraiya, Itachi, and Hiruzen. Yet, here he lay, comatose in a bed and his chakra fluctuating in a way that set my nerves on edge. A painful reminder that even the strongest of shinobi are still mortal—mostly, at least. I knew he would get better once Tsunade got here, part of why I didn't feel too terrible about putting off stopping by for as long as I did, but it still made my heart clench painfully seeing him here.  
Then there was a hand on my shoulder and I was jolting back like I'd been shocked, staring back at Guy who's hand stayed firm. His signature lurched at my reaction but the blindingly white smile didn't slip in the slightest.  
"Do not worry youthful student of my rival," Guy said. "I am absolutely sure the wonderful medics in this hospital will have him all sorted out soon!"  
"I appreciate the sentiment Guy-sensei, but I'd prefer if you didn't lie to me," I answered softly, not missing the twitch in his signature at his fib.  
I slipped out from beneath his grasp—or rather, he let me move away from it—to inspect the clipboard at the end of Kakashi-sensei's bed.  
"They don't know anything," Asuma said. "Nothing to read."  
I didn't look up. Instead, I said, "You shouldn't smoke in a hospital, Asuma-sensei."  
The man scoffed. "Nobody's told me to stop yet," he drawled.  
"I am," I said and absently flipped over the page.  
"You don't work here."  
"I do, actually."  
A new development in my life—a request to work for the hospital as an advisor in poisons. A few days ago I'd had a knock on my door summoning me to the hospital under the pretense—they'd apologized for the short notice, saying that the position had opened up and they couldn't afford to leave it open for long. There had been a short interview, where I was informed what was expected of me and exactly how well I'd be paid for it. Essentially, they wanted me to be there in case they had emergency cases where they had no known antidote and manual extraction wasn't an option. I'd also be in charge of helping maintain the antidote inventories. Nothing major because I was still on active duty but what little work I was expected to do paid exceptionally well. I was going to get a tour of the labs in a week, when I was scheduled to start the job; the idea of getting to work in an extensive lab was one of the best perks of the job, payment aside.  
It'd been a week since my evaluation and I, along with Sadao and Emi, had been thrown headfirst into ANBU patrols. Turns out nobody got spared from doing them, not even the specialists that would have essentially no skills suited for the job. Maen had said it was something of an initiation for new recruits. I could see how—patrols involved sprinting through the trees at punishing speeds while holding awareness of your surroundings for six hours a night. Even though we'd only been doing them for six days, I could see an improvement in both my stamina from the hours of running and my chakra reserves because of the sustained chakra usage necessary to hold pace.  
Pleasant? Nope.  
Worth it? It would be. For right now, though, I just saw it as the thing that drained my reserves, set my muscles on fire, and kept me up until three in the morning.  
"Kakashi told me that your use of medical jutsu was just supplementary. When did you decide to become a medic?" Asuma asked, eyebrow raised.  
The question broke me out of my thoughts. I blinked at him languidly. "I didn't," I said when his words caught up with me. "I'm just an advisor."  
It felt weird, having a relatively mundane conversation in a situation like this. It occurred to me that this wasn't the first time nor would it be the last time that they'd been in the hospital room of a loved one waiting for them to wake up. I scowled at the horridly grim thought. Shaking my head to myself I placed the clipboard back in its place—Asuma had been right, the staff knew next to nothing about his mental state. Physically he was healthy. The injuries he'd sustained in that respect were easily healed within the first couple of hours he spent here. Mentally though, they didn't know what to do with him.  
"You're handling this better than I expected," Asuma observed, watching me carefully from the corner of his eye.  
"It's actually kind of terrifying to see," I admitted.  
What I didn't say was that in a recent check-up, Inoichi had warned me that I had to keep my emotions—the negative ones, particularly—in check for the next few weeks. He had no idea if having a strong emotional response would trigger my chakra to completely shut down again. He suspected that it would take a far more severe level of reaction than I'd face out of a real combat situation but told me that I still needed to be watchful of it.  
So, I was.  
"I remember the first time my sensei got injured," he said, the cigarette still hanging from the corner of his mouth. "I know how shitty it can be to face the reality of our mortality, especially when that mortality belongs to the one who's supposed to be guiding you."  
"That was very profound, Asuma-sensei."  
"Yeah, it was, kid."  
I flinched.  
It was such a mundane, small thing. A nickname. Stupid, really, but… well, I had always been 'kid' to Kakashi-sensei. I only ever got Kasumi if I was in trouble. It was a reaction that snuck away from me before I could smother it. Sure, there were other people who called me 'kid'—most people who didn't know my name either went with 'kid' or 'little girl' or something equally condescending. It was always oddly affectionate, though, the way Kakashi-sensei said it, managing to be both infuriating and endearing to the point where I had never bothered getting upset over it. Tiredly I rubbed at my eyes and decided to blame the reaction on the exhaustion—I was running on three hours sleep.  
Asuma's eyes softened, though. He stood, snubbing out his cigarette under his heel and walked over to me, clapped me on the back, gave a short nod that I took to be some sort of apology, then vaulted out the window.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE  
.-.-.  
The next week involved a shocking level of blood, sweat, and bullshit.  
Maen and I started our private training for my infiltration specialization. It consisted of me learning to fold my signature into a mere fraction of it's usual size—easier said than done, truly, even with a signature as small as mine—and learning the more advanced intricacies of impersonating a noble. I had the basics from kunoichi classes still tucked away in the recesses of my mind, but those were only there to be built upon, not relied upon, so I learnt quickly I had a lot to learn. What I knew was more intended to keep me from offending somebody and to generally blend in to a crowd. Maen was teaching me how to how to stand out and flourish in that type of situation; there were times, I learnt, where I'd simply be put into a situation as a distraction, there to enrapture and awe the patrons of a party, while somebody else pulled off the real trick in the background. Maen made it clear that by the time he was finished with me, I'd be able to blend into any situation I could be tossed into at a moment's notice.  
There were also the team training session, where all of us took turns kicking the living shit out of each other. Unlike my training with team 7, there was an actual medic at the ready, so we could go as hard at each other as we wanted, and we did. The first day of training, Hayate broke my nose. The second day of training, I broke Hayate's nose. The third day of training, we weren't allowed to spar together. I saw improvement though. In taijutsu, I could wipe the floor with Emi or Sadao, and could manage against Hayate so long as he didn't have a blade in his hand. Kiyoko, Aoba, Genma, and Maen all sparred together, as they each had far too much experience to get anything out of sparring with the rest of us. As it turned out, Kiyoko had an impressive level of ninjutsu skill and an even more impressive level of skill with taijutsu, boasting a vicious style that she claimed originated in Kiri. I'd been trying to piece together something of a kata that I could run myself of the style, but the more I watched her fight, the more sure I became that there were multiple variations of the style that she was blending together when she fought, making it more difficult to distill any specific moves out of the fray.  
Then, of course, there was the first time the hospital called me in for assistance. It wasn't anything particularly difficult. A poison they'd had to manually extract from a shinobi, and they wanted my help in figuring out an antidote for it. Manual extraction was traumatizing to the body, and was to be avoided when possible—the odds of causing damage when performing it were relatively high, not just due to the faults of a medic, but also that a shinobi's body would occasionally reject the procedure, damaging both the medic and the patient. Antidotes were simply a safer option. It took me a few hours but, with the help of Keiko and Toshiko, I compiled a list for them as well as some of the more difficult to acquire plants. The rest was up to them.  
It was on the way home from that, though, that I noticed something—or, rather, someone—interesting. The spiking signature of one Sasuke Uchiha, off in the depths of the training grounds. I altered my course, from my apartment to his position, my feet skidding against the rooftop as I made a sharp turn on the ball of my foot.  
I'd come to recognize my teammate had been sent out on a mission while Naruto and I were otherwise occupied. Which was unsurprising, really. He was a skilled genin who was capable of combat at the chunin level, they were wasting him by keeping him in the confines of the village, even with Itachi on the loose and his typically prickly demeanour. The most logical placement for him would be in Team Guy, taking the role of front-line fighter while Lee was out, even if Neji and Sasuke were bound to butt heads.  
I slipped through the forests to the training ground that his signature was inhabiting. He was standing on the opposite end of the training field from a set of targets, sending kunai and senbon into them with vicious force, going for a full-armed, chakra fueled throw rather a more precise flick of the wrist, as was more typical. He was letting off steam, plain and simple.  
I sat back, allowing him his space, and watched. I could see the effects of the training with Kakashi-sensei even from as far back as I was, from the control he was exerting over his chakra as he channelled it to the sheer speed of his arm as he launched the projectiles; I was impressed by the show of skill.  
While he did that, I took the chance to make use of my ANBU training as I folded up my chakra and held it in. I doubted Kakashi-sensei had bothered to train Sasuke's senses to the point where he would have been able to sense me, but it was worth getting the practice regardless. It was an odd feeling. All of my of my senses seemed to dampened with my signature.  
I sat in the tree for almost half an hour before I felt his signature begin to ease some, the flow of his chakra smoothing out. He moved forward to grab his weapons and I unfurled my chakra, flaring it as I dropped out off of the branch.  
His shoulders stiffened and his signature jolted in response, though he didn't miss a step as he stooped down to grab a kunai, grabbing its hilt with nimble fingers. I watched his chakra shift, spike, then in one fluid movement he straightened up and flicked the kunai towards me.  
I ducked as the metal sailed over my head. There was a smirk on his face, the usual expression that was an infuriating mixture of cocky smugness, but his expression went blank the second his gaze focused on me.  
I stood again and inclined my head. "Good to see you too, Sasuke."  
His signature flashed in… annoyance? I frowned.  
"What is that?" he asked.  
"What is…" I went to ask, but trailed off, as I realized what he was asking about. My chunin vest. I'd been wearing it, to the hospital. It was official business, for lack of a better term, and I was required to be wearing it while I was there.  
"You got promoted?" he asked, and this time I could hear the annoyance in his voice. Not outright anger, surprisingly, just annoyance. Annoyance I could handle.  
"Field promotion," I supplied. "For what happened during the invasion."  
"Hn."  
With that, he went back to gathering his equipment. Huh?  
"'Hn'?" I asked.  
He rolled his eyes, then scoffed. "If I'd been in charge of that mission, I would have gotten promoted too."  
Part of me wanted to ask, 'What, that's it?' but the other part of me frantically stamped out that urge. What was the saying? Don't look a gift-horse in the mouth? I'd expected a fuss. I'd expected anger. Instead, I got annoyance and a smug comment. In his own arrogant, cocky manner, he was accepting that I had gotten a promotion.  
I'd take it.  
Knowing that nearly anything else I had to say on the matter would only start a fight, I crossed my arms over my chest and leant my shoulder into the tree trunk beside me, watching him as he moved. Either he didn't notice or didn't care as he continued on like I didn't exist. He gathered all his stuff and packed it away, then proceeded to beat the straw out of the dummies on the grounds, foregoing katas in favor of the more satisfying feeling of your blows meeting solid resistance.  
"So," I started off, moving the subject to a hopefully safer path, "what have you been up to over the last couple of weeks?"  
A minute passed while he finished whatever he was doing, before he turned to look at me. He was scowling. "Why do you care?"  
"You're my teammate," I said. "It's what I do."  
"No it's not," he answered.  
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Well, it's what I should have been doing."  
"I don't want you to."  
"And?"  
"Go away, you're being annoying now."  
Ah, there it was. The inevitable fight.  
"Why is me asking you about what you've been doing annoying?" I instead asked, refusing to rise to the bait, forcibly keeping my voice smooth and calm. I'd always risen to the bait, especially when it came to Sasuke, as I wasn't the type to back down from a fight, even the pettiest ones that I knew would only end badly. Rising to the bait, however, wasn't going to work if I was going to actually try and smooth out whatever this was.  
I wanted to make this work, so I would.  
His whole body seemed to go taunt. "It just is," he said. "Go. Away."  
I clenched my jaw. "Why do you have to always push?" I asked.  
Rather than answer, he flew at me, fists blazing.  
I wasn't equipped for a fight, not as much as I'd normally want to be. I didn't have my tessen nor did I have any of my poisons; all that I'd put on were emergency kunai, both coated and uncoated, as well as a pack of senbon.  
I wielded the senbon Wolverine-style, setting them between my fingers and gripping them there, deflecting and scratching when I could. His whole approach screamed annoyance as he threw out his logic and came at me with taijutsu, the one discipline he'd never been able to best me in. There was the odd jutsu, but nothing that could come close to stopping me. Still, I kept to the defensive, letting him get out whatever pent-up aggression he seemed to be harbouring in one of the few healthy ways shinobi could.  
As the spar dragged on, his blows lessened in strength. He started to pull back some and keep space. Even still, I kept to the defensive, not wanting to interfere with whatever he seemed to be trying to excise. It was a full ten minutes of this before Sasuke finally fully removed himself from the fight.  
His chest was heaving, and he was giving me an odd look, one that I couldn't even begin to decipher, but at least appeared to be devoid of anger. There was still that hint of his prior annoyance, though it had dulled into something more manageable. I steadied my breath and held his gaze.  
A full minute ticked by before he said, "Mission."  
I nodded, slipping my senbon back into their homes on the pouches that adorned my thigh, feeling something in my stomach ease. Was that relief? It wasn't the usual warmth of happiness. Satisfaction, maybe? I held off a sigh.  
The knowledge I had of this world from my life as Annika had prepared me to more easily read the people of this world. Feel out their motives, get in their heads and pick at their inner workings. Never Sasuke, though. I was starting to doubt that I would ever find myself fully capable of figuring out how that boy ticked.  
As I turned to leave the training ground, I waved a short hand over my shoulder and said, "Thanks."  
.-.-.  
The next two weeks felt like a blur.  
Time slipped through my fingers just as they had before, filled with training and monotony. Everybody else seemed to have been sent on missions. Each time I felt Sasuke's signature at the training grounds, I went and sparred with him. Each time, I seemed to wheedle out just a little bit more from him, get a bit more tolerance out of him, go that much longer without him getting openly hostile with me. By no means did he appear to like me—slowly but surely, though, I was working on it.  
I was sitting in my room when I finally felt the familiar, sunny signature of one Naruto Uzumaki burst through the gates, two stupidly powerful signatures in tow; on one side, Jiraiya, on the other, another person so powerful it could only be Tsunade of the Sannin. The second I processed the realization I was up and out of my apartment, my feet carrying across the rooftops to the source of the signature.  
I could hear Naruto yelling before my eyes caught him.  
"Ay, ay, Granny!" he shouted. "Just you wait I—"  
I dropped down in front of the group. My feet were only on the ground for a split second before Naruto tackled me in a hug, slamming into me with enough force that I stumbled back and let out a small 'oof'.  
"Who's that?" the Tsunade asked.  
"Just a friend of the brat."  
"Hey!" Naruto cried over my shoulder, right in my ear. "I'm not a brat."  
I winced and disentangled myself from him. Right. Manners. I knew how to use those, yeah? I gave a small bow to Tsunade and Shizune, and said, "My name is Kasumi Himura."  
She raised a single, elegant eyebrow. "Himura?" she asked. She turned her gaze from Naruto to Jiraiya. "This is her?"  
"Unimpressive little thing, isn't she?" Jiraiya asked.  
I bristled. "Oi!"  
"What, hey!" Naruto shouted. "Kasu is super cool and impressive!"  
"From the way you were talking about her, brat, I thought she'd be…" Tsunade trailed off, waving her hand vaguely.  
"Come now," Shizune chided. "Looks can be deceiving."  
Rather than get insulted by whatever Tsunade might have been implying, I turned to Naruto, a mischievous grin on my face. "You told were talking about me?"  
"Didn't shut up about you," Jiraiya grunted.  
Naruto gave a sheepish laugh, a flush crawling up his neck to his cheeks and scratching the back of his neck. "Well… I mean…"  
"Awh!" I cooed, reaching up to wrap my arms around his neck. "How cute!"  
"Ah, come on Kaka, knock it off!" he whined.  
I let go, took a step back, then pounced again to pinch his cheeks. He swatted me away and pouted. It felt like years since I'd last seen him, even though it'd only been a month. I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed the blonde idiot while he'd been gone; it felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest. Jiraiya cleared his throat and I finally broke away, but I still stood close enough to Naruto that our shoulders were bumping and I could feel the heat emanating from him.  
"Alright, brats," Jiraiya said. "We've got business to take care of, so why don't you two scurry off."  
"But—"  
"Hey, Naruto, wanna come see my new apartment?" I asked.  
I knew a dismissal when I heard one. Whatever they were planning to do, it didn't involve the two of us.  
"You got your own apartment?" he asked, suddenly distracted by the idea.  
"Yep."  
His eyes narrowed and a protest formed on his lips but I grabbed his wrist, dragging him behind in the direction of my apartment. Rather than keep resisting, Naruto gave in, and instead took to giving me an exuberant play-by-play of everything that happened while he was gone. I let him chat on, enjoying the sound of his voice, grateful that once again, I had my best friend with me.  
.-.-.  
Another week passed before it happened.  
As it turned out, after Naruto and I left, Tsunade went to go and heal Kakashi-sensei, as we found out the next day. We went to go and visit, but were turned away at the door as he wasn't being allowed any visitors—or he had requested not to see any, it was impossible to know. I suspected he only wanted some space.  
Regardless, after a few days he was up and about. Sasuke was back from his mission, so Kakashi-sensei wrangled all of us together for our first team training session in over two months. It went… better than expected. Naruto and Sasuke fought, but it was mostly harmless, idiotic bickering. I kicked both their asses in taijutsu, both of them kicked my ass with ninjutsu, and Kakashi-sensei wisely ended training before the two of them could try and spar with each other.  
Things seemed normal.  
So, when I got summoned, I didn't think anything of it. I assumed it'd be a mission or something of the kind. As I approached the Hokage tower, I noted the privacy seals had been activated, and a hint of foreboding crawled into my gut but I disregarded it. When I knocked on Tsunade's door, that sense returned with a vengeance, and I once again quashed it down.  
Then the door swung open, and sitting in the chair in front of Tsunade was a woman with a familiar face but a foreign chakra signature; my eyes widened and the air whooshed out of my lungs. The woman turned to me, the chair clattering to the ground with how fast she stood.  
She took a step forward, I stumbled back.  
"Oh," the woman whispered. "You look just like your father."  
Jet black hair and brilliant jade eyes that I hadn't seen since I was only a baby—that voice, that face, and Kami those words…  
Mother bounced me up and down on her shoulder, humming a lullaby. The sound of rain pounding agains the window panes echoed in the background, like an instrument to her song, complimenting the sweet melody of her voice.  
A door opened. Mother tensed, turning to face it as it swung open.  
"Amaya," mother breathed, her muscles loosening. "It's just you."  
"Yes, sorry. Didn't mean to startle you," the woman—no, she couldn't have been more than a girl, in her late teens at the oldest—apologized as she stepped through the threshold. She was in what appeared to be mission attire, hitae-ate strapped to her upper arm and muddied clothes that were drenched in water, clinging to her body. Her eyes widened. "Thats—that's her? It is a her… right?"  
"Yes," Mother murmured. "Our sweet baby girl."  
"Can I hold her?"  
"Only if you promise to go and change right after," mother said.  
The girl flushed and looked down, but gave a hurried nod. Mother moved over to her. I felt my little body being shifted around, sliding down off of her shoulder and into the crook of mother's arm, then being held out, nothing in my line of sight other than the ceiling. A new warmth surrounded me, but it wasn't the right warmth, it wasn't mother's warmth.  
I opened my mouth and screamed with the ferocity only babies could muster.  
Amaya let out a panicked yelp and almost instantly I was back in my mother's arms. Mother just laughed, cradling me there, and humming again. My cries subsided. Amaya leant forward, peering down at me with wonder filled eyes.  
"Oh," she said. "She looks just like her father."  
I jolted back into reality, feeling like somebody had dumped a bucket of cold water on top of me. "Aunty Amaya?"  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX  
.-.-.  
Tsunade looked to me, then my aunt, and she let out a pained sigh. Her hand raised to pinch her nose and she closed her eyes. She used her other to point to where I stood—in the back of my mind I wondered whether it was a good guess, or she'd used her chakra senses to discern my location with her eyes shut—and then to Amaya. "You two, stay. Everybody else get the hell out of my office—and I mean everybody."  
The man beside her sputtered. He looked like a member of some sort of council, from the formal clothes he was wearing. "Lady Tsunade—"  
"Get. Out."  
Nobody argued that time, not even her ANBU guards.  
I stood stock-still, not quite yet having wrapped my head around the fact that a blood relative of mine, an aunt no less, now stood only a few feet away from me, so close I could nearly touch her. Amaya's shell-shocked expression told me that she shared the sentiment, though not quite in the same way as I was experiencing it.  
The woman picked her chair up and settled herself down into it.  
Tsunade opened her eyes to look at me, motioning for me to take the empty seat in front of her desk, right beside Amaya. My movements were stiff as I obliged. Amaya shot me calculating looks out of the corner of her eye.  
"Alright then," Tsunade said. She looked to Amaya and waved a hand. "For formality's sake, tell me again what you're doing here."  
Amaya cleared her throat and stared straight forward. "My name is Amaya Kurosawa. I have come from my clan with information regarding the safety of Kasumi Kurosawa," she said, finally turning to look at me, eyes searching.  
"That's not my name," I murmured. "My name's Kasumi Himura."  
She flinched.  
I felt some amount of guilt worm its way into my gut, but it wasn't like I lied—that wasn't my name. I was Kasumi Himura. I'd always be Kasumi Himura.  
Tsunade pursed her lips. "And what is that information?"  
"I have reason to believe—no, I know, actually—that the current head of the Kurosawa clan is preparing to order her assassination."  
My head snapped to look at her. Upon closer inspection, once I was able to get over the inane resemblance she had to my father, I could see that she was clearly travel worn, bags under her eyes and the way her pupils were ever so slightly out of focus. Her clothes were torn and muddied. She'd come here in a rush, which did lend itself to the fact that she'd come here with the intent to administer her warning.  
Tsunade looked to me, but at my blank stare she must have decided that I wasn't going to be of much use in this conversation.  
"I'm assuming you're not here with permission of your clan," Tsunade said.  
"That is correct," Amaya affirmed.  
Her voice was soft, gentle, like the way I could remember father sounded when he spoke to mother and I, a breezy rasp that had me wondering how she sounded when she sang.  
"You've deserted your clan?" Tsunade continued and steepled her fingers together, her chin resting on the point.  
Amaya flinched again, eyes dropping to her hands for a split second before she raised them again.  
"Yes," she whispered.  
"You deserted your clan for the sake of keeping her," Tsunade pointed a finely painted finger at me, "safe from them?"  
Amaya turned her head and gazed out the window. "There's nothing left for me there," she said. There was a flatness to her voice, as if she wasn't actually here, but off somewhere in her mind, off sometime else in her mind. "There hasn't been for years."  
"What do you hope to accomplish by coming here?" Tsunade asked. "Keep her safe, obviously, but then what? I doubt your clan will take kindly to you doing this."  
"If you would allow it, Hokage-sama, I would like to join the village."  
I wheezed out a breath, taken off guard by the declaration.  
"I see," Tsunade said. She turned to me. "You've been quiet, Himura. Any input?"  
I had a lot of input, actually, but my mind was whizzing at a mile a minute, and I couldn't seem to organize my thoughts into any kind of tangible opinion.  
My head was pounding, my mind trying to pull me in a million directions, snippets of memories jumping into my mind and overlapping each other, all vying for my attention. All the tidbits my brain could scrounge up of the clan, each significant and insignificant mention of it, moving too fast for me to properly grasp what exactly I was seeing, what exactly my mind was trying to tell me, if anything at all.  
A hand dropped over my own on the arms of the chair and I jerked away.  
Amaya pulled her hand back, setting it down in her lap instead. "I know what's happening. Your mind is fighting you, your memories are fighting you. I could help you with that," she told me, her eyes pleading with me to listen, to understand. "I can teach you so much."  
I took a deep breath and tried to compose myself. A full minute passed, and upon recognizing I'd spent too long, I latched onto the first somewhat acceptable response, blurting out, "Like what?"  
She seemed to take this as an encouragement, her eyes lighting up. "I can help you better organize your mind and read your memories. I can teach your how to improve your use of our bloodlimit. I can… I can teach you the family genjutsu techniques! There's just… there's so much… all these things I've spent my whole life learning, things that I can pass onto you."  
Tsunade frowned. "You'd be willing to pass on all of you families secrets? Just like that?"  
Amaya's eyes never left my face. "She is my family. She's the only true family I have left."  
The godaime didn't seem satisfied, though. "So you're truly prepared to forsake your entire clan for a niece you've never met?" she pushed. "I want to be absolutely certain of your intentions."  
"That clan has taken away anybody I've ever cared about." Her fists clenched. "Besides… I owe it to my brother and his wife. They cared about her enough that they died for her. What kind of sister would I be if I let that sacrifice be in vain?"  
That time, I was the one who flinched.  
From what I could remember at least, I understood my father and Amaya to have been close. The odd joking reference was made about the other, them teasing each other in the few memories I had where both of them were present. It seemed like her appearance was triggering all of these memories that had been dormant in the deepest recesses of my mind, hidden away and buried, probably for good reason.  
The memories held no useful information—just a lot of pain that I would have preferred to live without.  
Tsunade watched me with a critical eye, likely gauging my reaction.  
"Why do they want her dead?" Tsunade asked, apparently having decided that moving the conversation back onto a more helpful path.  
"The current clan head believes she's a threat to him and his children as she has a viable claim to the position of clan head," Amaya said. "My brother, Akio, was the first-born son to the old clan head, our father, and the initial heir."  
My hands gripped the arms of the chair so tightly that my knuckles went white and the wood of the chair cracked. Both of the other people in the room apparently decided it was best to pretend it wasn't happening, as neither of them made any comment, while internally I was screaming.  
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "You're joking."  
"My father was… the heir?" I asked.  
Amaya nodded, her head turning back to the window again, staring off into the sky. "He would have been a good leader, I think. The clan was in a period of unrest when Akio and I were growing up—just like it is right now—and that only got worse as he prepared to take over the clan. Akio had the branch families on his side, but not the council, and especially not our father. He thought… our mother raised Akio and I, while our father ran the clan. Our father thought our mother had made us 'soft'. Neither of us were suitable to run the clan, in his opinion—which was fine for me, I never wanted to lead, but Akio did. He wanted to make the clan better, get us out of Kiri and back to our nomadic roots. Our father didn't agree. He thought we had a good thing with the village, with Yagura. Our clan did contracted work with Yagura. We didn't take any missions except ones specifically assigned by him; technically, we weren't actually a part of Kiri, though we wore their headbands. Our clan lived on the outskirts of the village, out of the main part of it. Not many within the village even knew we existed, with the exception of some of those higher up in the village. It was for the best. We were a large clan, we didn't need much from within the village itself anyways. Most of the branch family hated the fact that we were there regardless, though, because it meant they did the brunt of the work while the main family got to sit back and watch."  
"Why wouldn't the branch family fight back? Why not just revolt?" I asked, but I had a niggling feeling that I already knew the answer, things coming together in my mind hinting at the reason but without all of the pieces to give me the full picture.  
"Ask your Hyuugas," she answered, her lips twisting into a bitter frown. "Curse seals were the biggest thing that kept them in line. That and the head line of the family are the only ones to be born with the full spectrum of the family's bloodlimit, and members of the main family have two. Those in the branch only have one—either the sensing abilities, the memory, of the Shadow Step technique."  
"Shadow Step technique…" I mumbled. "It has an actual name."  
The name really raised more questions than it answered. It brought me back, though, to how Inoichi had remarked that my yin chakra seemed to resemble that of the Nara family, to some extent. He had claimed that it wasn't a perfect comparison, but still.  
"As interesting as this is," Tsunade cut in, "can you get to the point?"  
Amaya made a small noise in the back of her throat. "Ah, yes, I'm sorry," she murmured. "Akio was slated to be the next clan head. Of the head family, only the heir is allowed to marry and have children. Akio had heard rumours of our father wanting to make our brother—the current head of the clan, born to a different wife after our mother had died and our father remarried—instead of him. So he pushed forward to marry your mother and have you as soon as he could. He hoped that… that having you would help cement his position as heir. Your mother got pregnant nearly immediately, but that only seemed to make our father push harder to denounce him as heir."  
That was when I did definitely find myself seeing where the story was going. "What happens to head family children that aren't supposed to exist?"  
"They're killed," she said. "Your mother would have been remarried to my younger brother, and then they would have been expected to produce an heir."  
"So they're hoping to accomplish the first part of that," Tsunade guessed.  
Amaya nodded. "Yes."  
"What are they planning?" Tsunade asked. "They can't actually think just waltzing into the village and killing her is going to be a cake-walk, bloodlimit or no."  
Amaya gave her a faint smile. "You'd be surprised."  
"Seriously?"  
"Konoha may have a fearsome reputation, but reputation has not been enough to stop our clan in the past."  
Tsunade sighed. "I'll be damned… they can certainly try…" she muttered, shuffling the papers on her desk around and jotting down something.  
Something was bugging me, though. "Why would my mother have been remarried to your younger brother?" I asked, my mind shifting back through my earlier memories, pulling at information that I could now discern with what Amaya had said as context. "Wouldn't it have been easier to just kill both of them? I… I remember my mother… agreeing with my father. She was on his side."  
Amaya gave me a long look, assessing my expression, my posture, and she let out a breath. "You really don't know, do you?"  
"Know what?"  
"Your eyes, sweet girl," she murmured. "Your mother's eyes, and now your eyes. They're a dojutsu."  
Tsunade choked on her spit. My heart skipped a beat, and I had the vague sentiment that I wanted to cry—some emotion in me spurring that on, there were too many bouncing around in my head to really pinpoint one of them—but I couldn't be completely sure in that moment.  
Really?  
Who the hell did I piss off to deserve this?  
"This just keeps getting better and better," Tsunade muttered darkly.  
"What… what does it do?" I asked.  
"It's an offshoot of the sensing portion of the bloodlimit," Amaya explained. "An enhancement to the visual aspect of it—sort of like the Byakugan, but with less range and greater detail, as far as I understand. Only one or two people are born with it in a generation, so when your mother was born with it, it was decided she should marry your father, in hopes of increasing the likelihood that you as their heir would be born with it."  
"I'm sorry, but wouldn't I know I had a dojutsu?" I asked.  
"Well, no, actually," Tsunade said. "They're still your eyes, first and foremost—like how the Sharingan would sit completely dormant until awoken, to the point that some never actually unlocked it. You could go your entire life without unlocking them."  
"It requires a jumpstart form a clansman's yin chakra to wake it up," Amaya said. "It's impossible to unlock on your own."  
I sat back in my chair and gave the ceiling a sour look. I hadn't yet decided if it was a good day, or a shitty day.  
Obviously, it was good in that I was getting information I'd wanted for years, finding out about my clan from a blood relative, something I'd never imagined could be possible—hell, I had a fucking dojutsu that I was finding out about, because of this day. It was bad, however, because then all of a sudden the pain of losing mother and father was bubbling back into an aching open wound, the source of my information coming from who, in appearance, was essentially a female version of my father, an aunt I'd unconsciously obscured all memories of.  
My mouth twisted into a scowl. In the moment, it was a bad day, but after I had time to absorb everything and deal with it, I'd probably have a change of heart.  
"Alright," Tsunade said, pulling me out of my thoughts, "I'll accept you into the village on the conditions that you submit to a full interrogation."  
Amaya stiffened, but said, "That's acceptable."  
"Good."  
Tsunade pulled out another sheet of paper and scribbled down something, before she dropped the privacy seals around the office. Apparently using this as a cue, the two ANBU guards slipped back into the room. She handed the sheet back, and the ANBU—a hawk mask on top of a signature I'd felt before but never encountered face to face—to her left reached forward to take it from her.  
"Understood, Lady Tsunade," the gravelly voice said.  
"Follow him, he'll show escort you to the interrogation rooms," Tsunade said.  
Amaya rose from her seat, and with one last look at me, followed Hawk out of the room.  
I wathed, and for the first time, noted the fact that as she walked, no shadow followed her movements. My back stiffened but she was gone before I could say anything; Tsunade's eyes were there as well, and I wondered if she saw what I had.  
Again, as many answers as she had given me, I had so many questions left.  
There was silence for a moment before I said, "I need to talk to somebody about this."  
"I can imagine," Tsunade answered dryly. "One person. Pick wisely."  
"One person… yeah, I can do that."  
I stood, assuming that was my dismissal, but as I approached the door Tsunade said, "Himura."  
I turned back to face her. "Yes, Lady Tsunade?"  
"I intend on sending your team on an extended mission tomorrow," she said. "If this is going to be a distraction for you, speak now, while I can still find another team to take it."  
An extended mission? I didn't know of any extended missions coming up in the timeline—all I could recall was that there was a break in time between the exams and the Land of Tea mission, which I knew kickstarted Sasuke's departure from the village.  
Kami, thinking of it like that, was terrifying just how soon things were starting to appear.  
I shook my head. "I'll manage, Lady Tsunade."  
"I figured," she said, "but I guess it's my job now to ask."  
Then I knew I was dismissed.  
.-.-.  
I breezed past the Nara compound guards who waved me through on sight.  
I had nobody else I could imagine talking to.  
Naruto would listen, of course he would, but I also knew he'd have no idea how to react to the information. He'd try, but even with the amount of time around me, and all the work I'd put into making him more adept in social situations, he still didn't have the largest emotional range, especially not when it came to something like this.  
Cho would nod along and listen, but he didn't always have the best advice, and I could use a second opinion right then to help me sort through everything.  
I almost snorted aloud even considering Sasuke.  
Any other adult in my life—Kakashi, mama and papa, Maen, to name a few—weren't the type of people I felt comfortable spilling my guts to.  
Ino, though I wasn't particularly close with her, was a viable possibility, if only because I knew she'd be experienced with helping me talk through this kind of thing. She'd said before she was receiving training from her father about this, as she would be the one to take over his position after he retired, and for all her outward bluster, she was a good listener. More than anything, I didn't want to have to go through the experience of dredging out everything like I knew I would have to if I wanted to go to her for this.  
No. I already knew, from the second she said I could only talk to one person, exactly who it was I needed to go to all of this shit for.  
I fought the urge to just burst through the door and raised a hand to knock. I heard shuffling, from what I assumed was the kitchen. Then the door opened and Yoshino smiled at me. "Kasumi, dear," she greeted. "How are you?"  
"Fine Mrs. Nara," I lied, the smile on my face feeling strained.  
I saw a hint of concern in her eyes, but she just nodded and shuffled aside, pulling out the pair of guest slippers from the closet beside the door. "Shikamaru's upstairs in his room, but I think he might be sleeping."  
"Thanks," I said, pulling off my shoes to set beside the door and sliding on the slippers in one fluid motion as I walked through the door.  
I walked through the living room, past a half played game of shogi. I was almost to the stairs when Yoshino spoke again.  
"Dear," Yoshino called, "are you sure everything's alright?"  
I turned to look at her. She was biting her lip, hands clasped in front of her. The smile I gave her was a bit more genuine this time as I answered, "Yeah, but thanks for asking, Mrs. Nara."  
She nodded and I made my way up the stairs towards the fuzzy teenaged signature—as she'd guessed, he was fast asleep.  
I didn't bother to knock on his door as I opened it and let some of the light in. Shika groaned, flopping over in his bed to turn away from it. "What, mom…"  
"Good guess, but no," I said.  
Another groan. "Kas?"  
"Bingo."  
"Why?"  
I didn't say anything, instead closing the door behind me and walking over to his bed, perching myself on the edge of the bed and leaning against him until he budged up to give me room. He moved onto his back, the two of us lying shoulder to shoulder.  
"So," I said, "I met my aunt today."  
"I didn't know your parents had any family in the village."  
"Not that kind of aunt."  
"Biological aunt?" he asked, sounding about as shocked as I had been.  
"Yeah," I murmured. "It… weird, huh?"  
"Weird is a mild way to put it," he answered.  
"Kami… she looked just like my father," I said. "She looked just like me—minus the hair and eyes, but still." I stared up at the ceiling, more just talking now rather than talking specifically to Shika. "She was nice, I guess. Came here to stop me from being assassinated, so a good start to a relationship, too."  
He stiffened. "Assassinated?"  
I recounted everything she'd told me during the conversation, about what she'd told me about my parents, but also what I'd figured out using what little they'd spoken about while I was with them. I left out the stuff to do with my apparent dojutsu—still hadn't quite wrapped my head around that one, so there was no point bringing it up to him.  
"My father was always scared about me being in danger," I said, wrapping a lock of my hair around my finger absently. "He would—it'd always be the thing him and my mother worried about. My mother would try and convince him to leave earlier, but he was determined to try and stay. He was so sure it'd work out, that he'd figure it out… I'd just assumed their fears were because of how dangerous Kiri was in general. Bloody Mist era, ya kno'? That they'd figure out a way to keep me away from the schools, away from the shinobi life."  
"Now you know it's because your grandfather wanted to kill you," he said.  
"Yeah." I sighed. "I almost wish she hadn't come."  
"You'd have rather she let you deal with the assassination attempts for yourself?"  
I let out a noise of annoyance. "No! It… I don't know… it's just…" A harsh breath. "I'd managed to sort of, deal with all of this shit. After what happened in Wave, with all of that bringing it back up, I'd gotten over them again. I'd been able to put it back behind me… mostly, at least. With her here, it's just… Fuck, all of it's coming back."  
"You sound kind of confused."  
"I am confused!"  
"That's okay," he said. "You're allowed to be confused."  
I turned my head to look at him. "Huh?"  
He met my gaze. "You don't have to know exactly how you feel about all of this—I'm sure if Ino were here, she'd tell you how you feel is perfectly normal, and all that."  
"Ino's not here."  
He flicked my forehead. "C'mon, Kas."  
"Yeah, being a bitch, sorry."  
"Why don't you just forget about it for today?" he suggested. "Sleep on it for the night."  
"Shika, it's only 4 in the afternoon."  
"So?"  
"I can't just go to sleep."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes. I am. Very sure, actually."  
He yawned. "Can you really say that without trying?"  
"With great certainty," I said. "Besides, I can't deal with it tomorrow—Lady Tsunade said I'd be leaving tomorrow for one."  
"Troublesome."  
"For once, I can agree with you." I sat up. "You can go back to sleep if you want, though. I'm sure there's something else I can do while I internally mope over it."  
He tugged me back down. "One nap won't kill you."  
"Shika," I whined.  
"One nap," he repeated, another yawn passing his lips. "Naps are good."  
He looked up at me with those puppy dog eyes, his hair splayed around him, and my resolve fell like a house of cards. He wasn't wrong—naps were awesome, I loved naps just as much as the next person. I also knew that with a mission tomorrow, an extended one at that, I would be better off getting a start on my packing today rather than be stuck rushing around tomorrow trying to do all of it. I was lucky that I wasn't on the patrol roster for tonight, and I'd finished all of my training earlier on in the day, but still…  
"I should probably replenish my poisons, and pick up any essentials from the village tonight," I said.  
"You nap now, I'll help you later."  
"You?" I asked. "Actually offering to help?"  
He rolled his eyes. "On the condition that you nap."  
"You're such a lazy ass," I said, but complied, flicking off the slippers and curling up beside him.  
"Sure, whatever."  
I let my eyes fall closed and tried to push away all the dark thoughts in my mind, and hoped for a short nap, free of nightmares.  
.-.-.  
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN  
.-.-.  
The start of my morning the next day involved Kakashi-sensei, ice water, and metal projectiles.  
The details aren't worth getting into.  
However, by the time I arrived at the Hokage Tower, Kakashi was there with Naruto and Sasuke in tow, idly spinning one of my kunai around his index finger and an amused air about him—I didn't share the sentiment. As I approached he tossed a kunai at me, thrown slow so that, rather than impale me in the eye, I could snatch it out of the air by it's handle when it was an inch away from my face.  
I turned it over in my hands, the tips of my hair still dripping water onto the concrete. "Why did you have one of my kunai?"  
"You threw it at me," he supplied, in a pleasant tone that could have just as easily been discussing the weather, rather than the actual subject of attempted homicide.  
"I threw that one at your bucket," I corrected. "Not that it matters—I just want to know why you still have it."  
"Because you threw it at me."  
I paused for a second and decided that I actually no longer gave a shit. "Whatever. If you want your bucket back, you're going to get it yourself—otherwise it's going out my window."  
Naruto didn't bother to try and hide his interest in the conversation, eyes shooting between the two of us as though he were watching a high octane tennis match. Sasuke stood further back, arms crossed and signature scowl in place, but the fact that his gaze was doing the same gave him away as at least curious.  
Kakashi just gave me a blithe eye crinkle of a smile and a pat on the head in response.  
As we apparently had an appointment to keep, all of us trooped up the stairs into Tsunade's office, with minimal bickering along the way. I lost most of my overt crabbiness as we went, shifting from outright glaring at our sensei to a pointed, narrowed eye look at the back of his head every other minute. Upon reaching the office door, proper protocol called for us to knock, and then wait until invited to enter the room.  
Note: that protocol does not account for one Naruto Uzumaki, who instead barged right into the room.  
"Hey, hey! Baa-chan!" he shouted, kicking the door open.  
Kakashi gave a resigned sigh.  
"Dobe," Sasuke muttered.  
Tsunade must have agreed because the first thing she did was bean him in the forehead with a paperweight. Naruto hit the ground, emitting a dull thud on impact as our sensei watched on with a neutral expression, hands in his pockets.  
"You brat!" she shouted, sitting up in her chair. "Don't call me that!"  
"Ahh, come on," Naruto groaned. The boy rubbed the red mark on his face where the cube-shaped chunk of stone had made impact.  
I flicked the mark as soon as he moved his hand away, eliciting a yelp from the boy. "Shoulda dodged it."  
"Kaka," he whined.  
"Tough."  
Kakashi cleared his throat.  
Tsunade looked distinctly unimpressed with the lot of us.  
"If this is how you want to behave, maybe I should give you a different mission," she sighed, already shuffling papers on her desk. "I have an A-rank for you, but if you don't want it—"  
Naruto went to shout something else and I clamped a hand down over his mouth, Sasuke simultaneously stomping on his foot. Teamwork, at it's finest. When I didn't immediately let go, the blonde poked his tongue out and dragged it up my palm. I jerked my hand away and wiped it on the sleeve of his jacket.  
"Ew!" I said, lips curling up in disgust.  
Kakashi's face had gone from neutral to ashamed, letting out another sigh, head shaking.  
"If you're done," Tsunade drawled, looking about two seconds away from throwing something at us again, "can you stop wasting your hokage's precious time and get back to, oh, I don't know, the reason you're here? This mission?"  
All of us mumbled an apology.  
"Good." She pulled out a scroll and tossed it to Kakashi. "It's an extended A-rank mission. You'll be guarding Sandayū Asama and his company while they tour around the Land of Snow. You can get into details on your own."  
Kakashi unfurled the scroll, gave it a half-hearted scan, and pronounced, "We accept this mission."  
Naruto, one again, cheered.  
I however, could feel something akin to panic bubbling up in my throat.  
"You're joking, right Annika?" Mia asked, tossing a pillow at me from across the room.  
I batted it away. "Come off it."  
"Why won't you watch it?"  
"Because anime movies are stupid."  
"No," she said, "you're stupid."  
I threw the pillow back at her. "It's not even canon!"  
"So?"  
"So what's the point of watching it?"  
"Because it's good!" she answered, drawing out the last word. "The animation for it is pretty awesome, the story isn't too bad either, and it has Kakashi."  
"The whole show has Kakashi."  
Mia softly mumbled said silver haired, fictitious character's name, before she shook herself out of her 'fangirl state'. "We can watch it right now," Mia said, already pulling out her laptop.  
"Where is it even supposed to be in the timeline?"  
"Uhm…" she trailed off and stared into space for a second. "Right after Tsunade becomes hokage, but before Land of Tea, I think."  
"So it has Sasuke in it, then," I said, my lips turning down in a scowl.  
"Okay, yes… but it's so cool Annie! They go to the Land of Snow, save some princess, restore order to the country… it's awesome!"  
"Not a chance."  
As Annika, I had stuck to that—I never did end up watching the damned movie. If that weren't enough to set me on edge—which it was—then the idea of spending two entire months surrounded by snow certainly did the job.  
In this life, I had an aversion to the demonic white fluff. Something about dying in it previously had turned me away from it. Who would have guessed?  
Living in someplace like the Land of Fire helped in keeping me away from it for the vast majority of the year. Even then, when we were just at the start of January, the only noticeable difference was the more defined chill of the air; it'd only ever snowed twice since I'd become Kasumi. The first time it snowed was when I realized that that particular form of weather prompted my mind to regurgitate the memory of my death and then loop it for hours on end. The second time around only served to reinforce that.  
In summary, I was taking on this mission blind—go to Land of Snow, save some princess, restore order to the country—with the knowledge that I'd be surrounded by snow, a major trigger for the catastrophe that was the memory of my death, for up to two months. I was not a happy camper.  
A heavy hand fell on my shoulder and I blinked. Tsunade raised an eyebrow from where she sat behind her desk.  
Both of the boys had left the room, and given that I hadn't been shoved out as well, there was more Tsunade had to say to Kakashi and I.  
"Sorry," I said, giving my head a firm shake.  
She waved me off. "Just try to pay attention." She fished out to thick files from underneath her desk and dropped it onto the surface with a horrifying thump. "Here's everything we got from your aunt last night, there's a copy for each of you."  
Oh.  
Kakashi stiffened, his grip on my shoulder tightening—apparently I hadn't zoned out long enough for her to get into anything important.  
"That's…"  
"We're not even done yet," Tsunade said, her lips twisting into a dry smile. "However, you ought to at least know some of this before you make yourself vulnerable by leaving the village."  
"A little bit of context would be appreciated," Kakashi said.  
"Yesterday, a member of the Kurosawa clan—specifically, your student's aunt—entered the village with information regarding Himura's safety. As she requested to join the village, we did a full interrogation of her, and still are in the process of interrogating her." Tsunade pointed to me. "That one, apparently, has not only what's left of her birth clan chasing after her ass, but also a nasty bounty on her head courtesy of Kirigakure."  
Typically, one only got a bounty for being a recognizable threat. To the majority of sane people, the idea of having a bounty on your head was something dreaded and awful, something that'd keep you awake at night—among shinobi, though, your first bounty was the kind of thing you went out and celebrated by drinking a whole lot of sake. It was a form of recognition that you were enough of a pain in the ass that enemy villages wanted you dead.  
What Tsunade said though implied the bounty had a different nature to it.  
"Why is Kiri bothering with me?" I asked.  
"You're a bargaining chip," she said. "There's a better explanation in that file for you, but the short of it is that your clan left Kiri before Mei took the reigns four years ago. Mei, bringing back the blood limits of the village, wants your clan to rejoin. They don't want to. Your aunt thinks that Kiri is hoping to gain favor with the clan by taking you out for them."  
"Awesome."  
The woman shrugged.  
"As far as bounties go, it's not the most impressive—it's only a skiff compared to what your sensei's is, has the explicit order for you to be taken alive, and was only very recently set up. Our independent intel combined with what your aunt has told us leads me to believe it's only a few weeks old, at most. Whether that'll interfere with your mission, we'll see."  
Beside me, I could feel Kakashi's chakra crackling, somewhat agitated but in a way that I could tell he was also keeping a tight grip on it, like lightning ricocheting around a jar. The sensation set my teeth on edge.  
"Understood, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said.  
I nodded.  
"Good," she said. She handed each of us our respective files. "What of that you choose to share with the other two members of your team is up to you—I, frankly, don't give a damn."  
Kakashi, having decided that was our dismissal, pulled out his book in one hand and with the other he spun me around, giving me a push between the shoulder blades. I had no idea where his file went—damn ninja tricks.  
When the two of us were out of the room he turned to me. He gave me a long look, before he finally said, "I'll leave it up to you what Naruto and Sasuke know of that."  
Frankly, I would have rathered to shove my head in the sand and pretend none of that was even happening. Kakashi was giving me the option to do so, but whether that was actually the right choice was still up in the air, in my books.  
I chewed the inside of my lip. "I need to think about it," I admitted.  
Kakashi nodded. "Let's go, then."  
We relocated down the hall to one of the empty debriefing rooms. Naruto and Sasuke were already in there, sitting on opposite sides of the table and ignoring each other. Debriefing rooms weren't all that large to begin with, though, so it's not like they really had that much space separating the two of them. Still, they hadn't killed each other, so that counted as progress in my books.  
Naruto looked up as the door opened. He was bouncing up and down in his seat, the chair creaking with the movement.  
"So, so, what did Baa-chan say?"  
"Classified," Kakashi said.  
"What?" Naruto whined. "Come on!"  
"Quit it, dobe," Sasuke muttered, sending a glower at the blonde.  
For the sake of keeping peace, Kakashi sat down next to Sasuke while I sat down next to Naruto.  
Sensei unrolled the scroll, holding it right up to his face. "Alright."  
Ten seconds passed. Then twenty. Thirty, forty. Fifty. A whole minute.  
Naruto was vibrating beside me, and a vague form of killing intent was rolling off of Sasuke.  
It was both hilarious and annoying watching him wind the boys up like that.  
As I, however, did not feel like sitting there for half an hour—because Kakashi would do that, I'd seen the lengths he'd for the sake of being annoying—I cleared my throat and asked, "Sensei?"  
"Ah, yes?"  
"The debriefing."  
"Patience, my adorable little student."  
"I'm patient," I said, then pointed to the boys. "They're not."  
He gave a dramatic sigh. "Well, if you insist on rushing me." He blinked, and then his face, or what little I could see of it, morphed into a somber expression. "We'll be leaving tomorrow morning. The client is waiting for us in a port city to the east of here, just south of Wave."  
Mentally, I was tracing the most likely path we'd be taking. To leave from south of Wave meant we'd be going between Toad and Water, then up between Stone and Lightning, then all the way around Lightning to get to Snow. To depart from one of the more north eastern sections of Fire, we'd have a better route; between Toad and Whirlpools, then just hug the east coast of Lightning until we hit Snow. It would only shave off a day, maybe two, depending on other factors obviously, but that would still have still been better than what I was estimating to be a week long boat trip.  
"That's a long trip," I murmured. "Why not depart from north of Wave instead? The route from there would be far more direct."  
Sensei shrugged. "Not my call."  
"How long are we gone for?" Sasuke asked. "Hokage-sama mentioned it was an extended mission."  
"A month or two in Snow," Kakashi said. "It's not specified more than that. However, it'll take us a few days to get to the port village, and from there we'll have a week long boat trip to get to Snow."  
"I'm assuming we're going sooner rather than later?" I asked.  
"Correct. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning at dawn, since I'm sure you'll all need some time to get together the needed mission gear." Sensei rolled up the scroll. "Pack for this mission properly. It's the middle of winter, and while that might not mean much here, it means that Snow right now is very cold, and I prefer my little students with all of their extremities."  
Kakashi stashed the scroll in his flak jacket, making it clear he was done talking. He gave me an expectant look.  
I chewed my lip, thought it over, then promptly spilled my guts.  
I told them about meeting Amaya and what she had said about my father, tied it in with what little information I could provide from my memories, the fact that there were people after me, and why it was believed they were after me. As expected, Naruto had a zealous reaction to that news, but he was quelled with a smack on the back of the head and a side hug. For the finale, I ended all of it off with the news that I had a dormant dojutsu. That last statement elicited an interesting reaction.  
Kakashi went very, very still; Sasuke looked at me like I'd grown a third eye—which in some ways, I suppose I had; and Naruto asked what a dojutsu was.  
All in all, it was a productive, if interesting conversation.  
.-.-.  
I'd already gotten myself somewhat packed after leaving Shikamaru's house the day before—amazingly, he had actually come over to help with the process, though his help mostly consisted of bumming on my couch for an hour and making us food, with the odd item thrown into my pack for me—but that packing had not accounted for being in the Land of Snow during winter time. As such, I realized as soon as I got home that I had shopping to do, a lot of it actually, and not a clue where in town I could start. I'd never had to go looking for winter attire like this, and as far as I knew, none of the equipment shops in the villages that I'd gone to previously carried stuff for this.  
I was in uncharted territory, and as Kakashi had disappeared to do whatever, I wasn't quite sure what to do.  
Then I realized that, technically, I had two adults living on either side of me with an absurd amount of combat experience, one of which had to know where I could get what I needed. It was only a matter of whether or not I was willing to ask. I reached out my senses and realized that Maen, while in his apartment, was also out cold. Genma on the other hand was awake—if our apartment floor plans were as identical as I thought, he was in his kitchen.  
I let out a sigh.  
I knocked on the door, and after a muffled yell of "One minute!", the door swung open.  
The man blinked at me. "Hey, little hime, what's up?" Genma asked, mop of brown hair hanging around his face and eyes still unfocused with sleep.  
It was already past noon, and even after a night of partying, shinobi weren't the type to sleep this late. Considering a short scan of the building revealed Maen, Hayate, Kiyoko, and Raido to be in varying levels of unconsciousness, I started to wonder if the main squad had been out on a mission. I wracked my brain, and realized that I wasn't actually sure, as I hadn't been watching for their signatures the previous few days. Not that I could use that as an accurate marker, seeing as how Genma and Raido rarely ever were in their rooms anyways, except for a few hours a night.  
From the raised eyebrow, I realized I'd been lost in my musings for too long to be socially acceptable during an actual conversation, especially when I was about to ask him for something.  
"Uh… would you be able to do me a favor?"  
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his shoulder against his doorframe. "That depends," he said. "What do you need?"  
"I'm leaving tomorrow for an extended mission in Snow tomorrow," I said, "but I don't own any snow gear, and I have no idea where to get it."  
"Don't you have a sensei to help you with that?"  
I gave him a flat look, eyebrow raised.  
"Right, yeah," he said, running a hand down his face. "I'll help you out. I'm still eating breakfast—or lunch, whatever—if you want to come in. There's probably enough for you to have some too."  
The smell wafting towards me from the kitchen wasn't bad, either. Not entirely surprising considering Genma was a thirty year old man, and had probably been cooking for himself as long as I've been in this life. My stomach, rebellious from having not gotten breakfast due to the unceremonious nature of my awakening, gave a mighty roar at the scent, and sealed my answer for me. So, albeit somewhat awkwardly, I pulled off my shoes and slid into the house slippers, padding in to sit down at Genma's kitchen counter.  
The house was an odd mix of order and chaos.  
The plates were all perfectly done, cleaned and stacked in his cabinets, but there were about five different mugs scattered through the kitchen, each with a little bit of tea still in them. The floors were swept and clear, except for in the far corner of his living room, where I could spot a pile of blankets and pillows like somebody'd tossed them off the couch without really paying attention. None of the chairs seemed to be fully pushed into the table. Half of the coffee table was covered in a mass of magazines and novels, with various ninja gear interspersed among them, while the other half was cleared and had coasters sitting out on it.  
It looked like the house of a man who'd grown up with a nagging parent, and then only half kept the habits after moving out.  
Dishes were set down in front of me with a noisy clatter—a steaming bowl of rice and miso soup. I jumped, and from his snicker, I knew that he'd done it to scare me. I'd call it rude, but since he was the one giving me a free breakfast, I couldn't really complain much, so I just rolled my eyes—besides, who was I to judge rudeness?  
"Thanks."  
"Want anything to drink?" he asked.  
"Got coffee?"  
"Ah, no."  
"Tea or water is fine, then, I'm not picky."  
A minute later, a cup of green tea joined the bowls.  
The man shrugged as he sat down. "It's nothing gourmet, but it'll do."  
"No, it's good," I said, picking up my spoon. "All I ever make for myself is toast or something."  
His nose scrunched up. "That's it?"  
"I use shinobi bread!"  
Shinobi bread was, as the name suggested, bread formulated specifically for shinobi to eat. It was designed by the Akimichi years ago, a special recipe that was packed to the brim with nutrients and calories, almost three times as many as any normal bread you could buy in the market. Plus, since the Akimichi pioneered it, the stuff didn't taste half bad. I'd expected cardboard when mama first started buying it for me, and had been pleasantly surprised.  
"That's still not a very good breakfast," he scoffed. "No wonder you're so short."  
"Could be worse," I answered. "I could be Naruto, and live off cup ramen. Or Kakashi-sensei, who I'm pretty sure only ever eats ration bars."  
Genma snorted. "Fair enough."  
After a minute of eating in silence, I asked, "So, were you guys on a mission last night?"  
He gave me a short nod. "Yeah," he said once he'd finished chewing. "We were only supposed to be gone for the day—it was just within the country, some nuke-nin getting too close to the village—but one of them ended up being a bit… ah… slipperier than expected, so we didn't get home until the sun was already up again."  
I raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like the type of mission your tracking specialist should have been with you on."  
"Not when said specialist is still in training, a baby-faced chunin, and due to be leaving for an extended mission before their allotted time off would be up."  
ANBU missions had a required forty-eight hour period after which all operatives weren't permitted to take any missions. Normal missions had, for obvious reasons, less than that, only having to wait twenty-four hours between missions, sometimes less depending on the rank you were doing.  
"Fair enough."  
"Speaking of missions," Genma said, "where are you going?"  
"Land of Snow, for two months."  
He choked on his soup. "Who did you piss off?"  
"Tsunade, apparently, since she gave us this mission personally." I paused for a minute. "Come to think of it, it's probably Naruto's fault."  
"Yikes." He wiped at his chin with a napkin. "Well, okay, I can help you get yourself set up. You really only have to shop for this kind of thing once… at least, maybe. If you grow anymore you'll have to do the rounds again, but at least that time you'll know where to go."  
I could see the prominent bags under his eyes, and doing a little bit of math, knew that he at most was running on five or six hours of sleep, which wasn't bad for a shinobi until you factored in the fact that they'd likely spent hours on end pursuing and fighting enemy shinobi.  
I frowned.  
"If you need to rest, I can go find somebody else, you know. I felt Naruto running around the village with Iruka a few minutes ago, I'm sure he can show me too."  
He waved me off. "Don't worry 'bout it. I wasn't getting back to sleep anyways, and I haven't got anything better to do."  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah. You can pay me back by not freezing to death in that snow."  
I knew it was just an offhanded joke, a reflexive comment, but I still flinched like the words had been a slap across the face. The memories rushed in, the bright lights staring me in the face, the fading sensation of the snow, cold and wet against my back as my blood dyed it red. There was an odd creaking noise as my spoon bent in my clenched fist and I suddenly dropped it, watching the crooked metal utensil clatter against the kitchen table.  
"Ah, fuck," I muttered, shaking myself and picking it up again. I shifted it back to its normal shape in a single sharp tug. "Sorry."  
He stared at me, and I mean stared, like he was looking past my face, straight into my soul. I turned my eyes down to my food and took another bite, not willing to hold his gaze.  
"No, don't be, hime. Guess that was a bad joke."  
The meal was a silent affair after that. I helped with the dishes when we were done and then Genma took me for the tour of the shinobi shops. There were a shocking amount of hole-in-the-wall places that he took me to. It wasn't exactly a cheap day, but it was a productive one.  
Two hours, fifteen stores, and a skiff off my savings, and I had anything I would need for the upcoming two months spent freezing my ass off in the Land of Snow's winter. I packed all of my stuff up as quickly as possible, making what use I could of the storage scrolls I'd purchased while we'd been out, rather than actually try and shove that much gear into a single pack.  
After that I made my way to my little shack and restocked some of the more useful poisons—a couple vials of paralysis poison, a couple vials of sleeping poison, and then a single vial of the lethal poison that I'd manufactured back in Wave. By the time I got back to my apartment for the night, my belt was completely replenished, though I hadn't had a chance to ready any more poison tags to bring with me.  
I still went to sleep that night feeling woefully unprepared, but I found solace in knowing that I'd at least done my best to give myself a decent shot at things.  
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